MANILA, Philippines — Ernie Gawilan logged a respectable 6th place finish in the men's 400-meter freestlye S7 medal rounds at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Sunday.
Gawilan, who clinched a spot in the final in his second event in the Para Games, logged 4:56.24 in the final — more than two seconds faster than his time in the preliminaries earlier.
The Filipino para swimmer was 25.18 seconds behind Israel's Mark Malyar who ruled the competition with a world record time of 4:31.06.
This beat his previous world record of 4:33.64, a time he set in London back in 2019.
Ukraine's Andrii Trusov came in second with 4:35.56, more than four seconds slower than Malyar. USA's Evan Austin clinched bronze with 4:38.95.
En route to the final, Gawilan finished sixth among nine swimmers in the heats with 4:58.58.
Gawilan competes in one more event in Tokyo, the 100-meter backstroke S7 set tomorrow at 9:03 a.m. Japan time (8:03 a.m., Manila time).