ERNIE Gawilan clinched a berth in the final of the men’s 400m freestyle-S7 of the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games after placing sixth among nine competitors in the heats on Sunday morning at the Tokyo Aquatics Center.
The 30-year-old Gawilan checked in at fourth place in Heat 2 with a time of four minutes, 58.58 seconds to make it to the finals set at 5 p.m. on Sunday (4 p.m. Manila time).
Gawilan moved to the medal rounds after failing to make it to the final in his first event of this Paralympic Games, the men’s 200m individual medley-SM7 last Friday.
Ernie Gawilan
Mark Malyar of Israel had the best time among the nine swimmers, topping Heat 1 with a clocking of 4:41.82 in the event for competitors with limited leg function.
Also advancing to the finals were Federico Bicelli of France (4:45.53), Inaki Basiloff of Argentina (4:46.17), Andrli Trusov of Ukraine (4:57.23), Evan Austin of United States (4:57.35), Toh Wei Soong of Singapore (5:03.82), and Chen Liang-da of Chinese Taipei (5:18.89).
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