Ganapin blows chance in Paris

MANILA, Philippines — Allain Ganapin absorbed a heartbreaking 12-9 defeat to Azerbaijan’s Abulfaz Abuzarli and kissed his medal chances goodbye in taewondo’s K4 men’s -80-kilogram of the 17th Paris Paralympics at the Grand Palais last night.

On the cusp of pulling off a shocker over his fancied foe after leading, 9-5, with less than two minutes left, Ganapin got stalled and stumbled the rest of the way to a more experienced rival.

Earlier, Ganapin delivered the first victory the glory-seeking Philippine team needed as he bested Hadi Hassanzada of the Refugee Paralympic Team, 22-13.

Ganapin, 26, roared back from an early 7-10 deficit and turned it to an 18-10 lead with a flurry of body kicks and was never threatened from there to seal a spot in the round-of-16 in the men’s K44 -80-kilogram division.

Earlier, Jerold Mangliwan struggled to recover his old form and finished eighth and last in the men’s 400-meter T52 race at the packed but soaking wet Stade de France.

Mangliwan clocked one minute and 4.55 seconds that proved to be not enough to have a legitimate shot at a medal in the event impressively won by Belgian Maxime Caranine in 55.10 seconds.

It was an improvement to his time of 1:05.79 he submitted in the heats where he wound up seventh of the eight finals qualifiers.

There were no excuses offered by Mangliwan after the race.

The Filipino’s best time coming here was 1:01.35 he set in last year’s Hangzhou Asian Games where he eventually struck gold.

Mangliwan will have one more event left – the 100m – set Thursday.

Also eyeing a medal at press time last night was swimmer Ernie Gawilan in the 200m individual medley for SM7 class.