Gawilan finishes 6th in Paralympic swimming

MANILA, Philippines — Filipino para swimmer Ernie Gawilan ended his third Paralympic Games stint in Paris after he finished the men’s 400m freestyle - S7 final at sixth place Monday night (Manila time).

Gawilan, who dominated in the heats in the afternoon, struggled in the final, finishing with a time of 5:03.18.

This was 24.48 seconds behind Italy’s Federico Bicelli, who won the gold after tallying a time of 4:38.70.

Ukraine’s Andrii Trusov and Argentina’s Inaki Basiloff brought home the silver and bronze medals with times of 4:40.17 and 4:40.27, respectively.

The 33-year-old Filipino swam in his third Paralympic stint.

He was not able advance to the final of the 200m individual medley SM7 a couple of days ago, but in the 400m freestyle heats, he topped Heat 2 with a time of 5:13, almost 16 seconds ahead of Trusov.

With Gawilan’s exit, the Philippine delegation in the Paralympics is now down to three -- Jerrold Mangliwan (men’s 100m T52,) Cendy Asusano (women’s javelin throw F54) and Angel Otom (50m backstroke S5 and 50m butterfly S5).