malaysiang
MANILA: Filipino Angel Mae Otom gave her best but was not good enough to earn a podium finish on Wednesday at the Paris Paralympics.
She clocked 44.00 seconds to finish sixth in the women’s 50-meter backstroke S5 final at the La Defense Arena.
As expected, Tokyo Paralympics champion Lu Dong of China claimed victory in 37.51s. She holds the world and Paralympic record of 37.18s.
Compatriots He Shenggao (39.93s) secured the silver and Liu Yu (42.37s) took the bronze.
Turkiye’s Sumeyye Boyaci (43.30) was fourth followed by Great Britain’s Tully Kearney (43.40).
Sevilay Ozturk (44.19), also from Turkiye, and Ukrainian Iryna Poida (44.29) were seventh and eighth, respectively.
Otom, a third-year irregular student at the UP-Diliman College of Human Kinetics, qualified for the final after placing fourth in Heat 1 (44.03). She set a personal best time of 42.00 at the World Series in Singapore last year.
Otom has another event, the 50m butterfly scheduled on Sept. 6.
The native of Olongapo City is the country’
s last hope to bring home a medal after fellow swimmer Ernie Gawilan ranked sixth in the 400m freestyle S7 event.
Gawilan, who hails from Davao City, also failed to reach the 200m individual medley SM7 final.
Source: Philippines News agency
