By MARK REY MONTEJO
After an impressive Olympic debut performance in the heats, para swimmer Angel Otom faltered and settled for sixth place in the women’s 50m backstroke-S5 event of the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games at Paris La Defense Arena Wednesday, Sept. 4 (Manila time).
Up against idol China’s Lu Dong, Otom, 21, did try her best but it was not enough as her time of 44 seconds was good only for sixth place.
But to her consolation, it was a slightly faster than her time of 44.03 in the preliminaries.
Dong clinched the gold in 37.51 seconds.
It was a remarkable 1-2-3 finish for the Chinese as Shenggao He (39.93) and Yu Liu (42.37) finished second and third, respectively.
But the mission of the UP standout is far from over as she vies in Heat 1 of the 50m butterfly-S5 set Friday, Sept. 6.
Para racer Jerrold Mangliwan and para javelin thrower are competing as well for the Nationals, setting in their respective events on Friday and Saturday.
They need to come up with extraordinary efforts if they are to produce the country’s first medal in the quadrennial event following failed bids by swimmer Ernie Gawilan, archer Agustina Bantiloc and taekwondo jin Allain Ganapin.
