MANILA, Philippines – Filipino wheelchair racer Jerrold Mangliwan gave himself a medal chance in the Paris Paralympics as he reached the final of the men’s 400m T52 at the Stade de France on a rainy Friday, August 30.
Competing in the Games for the third straight edition, Mangliwan placed fourth in his heat with a time of 1 minute and 5.79 seconds to make the eight-man cutoff.
The top three from each of the two heats earned outright final berths, with the next two fastest athletes also advancing to the medal race.
But winning a historic para athletics medal for the Philippines will be a tall order for Mangliwan as the native of Tabuk, Kalinga ranked seventh overall.
Mangliwan finished fifth in the same event in the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago but got disqualified due to lane infringement.
World record holder Maxime Carabin of Belgium emerged as the gold-medal favorite after topping the heats with 54.48 seconds followed by Japan’s Tomoki Sato (58.04) and Tomoya Ito (1:00.42).
Sato, who holds the Paralympic record of 55.39 seconds, is the defending champion.
The final is scheduled at 1:12 am on Saturday, August 31 (Manila time).
Mangliwan’s heat time was 4 seconds slower than his personal best and national record of 1:01.35.
“I got slower because of the rain. I also got a bit nervous because only the top three will advance outright in the final,” Mangliwan said in Filipino. “Good thing I brought special gloves for the rain. But it was still hard to control my racer.”
“Hopefully it won’t rain anymore so I could have a better run,” he added. – Rappler.com