After successfully defending his Asian Para swimming title in the 400-meter freestyle S7 title, Ernie Gawilan is now setting his sights on the Paris Paralympics set next year in France.
“‘Yan naman ang paghahandaan namin ni coach (Tony Ong),” said Gawilan after capping his stint in the Hangzhou Para Asiad with a 4th-place finish in the men’s 100m backstroke – S7 at the Hangzhou Sports Center’s Aquatics Arena on Thursday night.
The 32-year-old swimmer from Samal Island in Davao said they will focus on improving his time in the men’s 400-meter freestyle S7 event, where he won the gold with a time of four minutes and 58.29.
His new time was a bit slower than his personal best of 4:51 clocking he achieved in Jakarta in 2018 when he won the gold in record-setting fashion.
“We will work harder to make it (time) better,” added Gawilan, who said his clocking is good from 5th to 8th in the qualifying system of the para-swimming that will have the world top 16 players in the 2024 Paris.
Gawilan, however, will have to wait for the formal announcement of the qualifiers in February next year when all qualifying tournaments have already been completed.
Summing up his overall performance in his third Asian Para Games, Gawilan admitted that it’s better to focus his energy on middle-distance races, although he is still satisfied with the results.
“Ayos naman po. Kahit papano, na-depensahan ko pa din ‘yung isang event ko. ‘Yung dalawa nakuha nila pero ayos pa rin naman, nakalaban pa rin naman,” said Gawilan in summing up his performance highlighted by a gold and a bronze medal men’s 200m Individual medley.
“Maganda ang laban ko sa long distance, kung meron pa nga sanang mas mahaba pang race pero hanggang 400 meters lang kasi sa Para (Games),” he said.
Gawilan first saw action in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.