A finals berth eluded Filipino para swimmer Gary Bejino until the very end as he concluded his Tokyo Paralympics campaign at 20th place in the men’s 100m backstroke S6 on Friday, September 3.

Bejino clocked 1:28.87 to finish last in the event where only the top eight swimmers advanced to the medal round.

The 25-year-old recorded the third-fastest reaction time in his heat but he fell behind early and failed to recover.

China’s Jia Hongguang topped the heats with a time of 1:14.15, while Argentina’s Matias de Andrade (1:14.38) and Croatia’s Dino Sinovcic (1:16.74) wound up at second and third places, respectively.

A first time Paralympian, Bejino qualified for the most number of events – four – among the three Filipino para athletes who saw action in Tokyo.

However, the Albay native missed the finals in all events.

Bejino finished 17th in the men’s 200m individual medley SM6, 14th in the men’s 50m butterfly S6, and 13th in the men’s 400m freestyle S6. – Rappler.com