Jerrold Mangliwan’s setback of getting disqualified in the final of the men’s T52 400m run will not derail him from aiming for the best finish in his upcoming events. 

“Mangliwan is a fighter and got over it right away. He is looking forward to racing on Sunday,” said his coach Joel Deriada, who was left in Manila after testing positive for COVID-19 prior to departure. 

The two-time Paralympian is already looking ahead after he is set to compete in lane 4 of the men’s T52 1500m race finals on Sunday, August 29, 7:42 pm, Manila time.

The heats were originally scheduled on Saturday, August 28, but organizers scrapped it because there are only seven racers in the field.

According to Deriada, Mangliwan was initially not aware of his disqualification. The Filipino violated World Para Athletics Rule 18.5a, regarding lane crossing and obstruction, when he crossed Austria’s Thomas Geierspichler’s lane.

“Hindi alam ni Jerrold na na-DQ siya kasi umalis na siya kaagad pagkatapos niyang makita yong time at pumunta sa dining hall nang makausap ko,” Deriada said.

“Tinanong ko kung alam niya na pumasok siya sa lane ng kalaban, ang sagot niya, ‘Hindi na, coach, kasi tinodo-todo ko na at nakapikit na ko nang malapit sa finish line.”

(Jerrold didn’t know he was disqualified because he left after he saw his time and went straight to the dining hall and got to talk to him. I asked him if he knew that he crossed the opponent’s name, but he said that he was giving it his all so he had his eyes closed when he was near the finish line.) 

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The coach speculated that the front wheel of Mangliwan’s wheelchair racer might have entered the Austrian’s lane accidentally in his all-out effort to cross the finish line ahead since the athlete’s right arm is stronger than the left

“Baka nga kumaliwa at pumasok sa lane sa lakas ng hataw ng kanang kamay niya (Mangliwan),” said Deriada. 

(Maybe he veered towards the left and entered the lane because of how strong his arms were.) 

Mangliwan clocked his personal best of 1 minute and 80 milliseconds, which would have been cemented as a new national record and would merit him government incentives despite finishing fifth in the final. 

Meanwhile, swimmer Ernie Gawilan will be seeing action in his pet event, the men’s 400m freestyle S7 race as he compete in the second heat on Sunday at 8:07am, Philippine time. 

After narrowly missing a finals berth in the men’s 200m individual medley SM7 by one spot, he hopes that he could make it to the top eight, who will race in the final at 4pm.

Head coach Tony Ong is already impressed with the para swimmer’s performance as he reset the event’s national record after clocking 2:50.49 last Friday, August 27.

“Honestly, I was happy with his (Gawilan’s) 200 IM time considering the short time of our preparations (for Tokyo) because of the COVID-19 pandemic and ECQ. That was nearly two seconds off his Asian Para Games record. That’s very good,” Ong said. – Rappler.com