PARIS—Angel Mae Otom placed third in her qualifying heat, propelling herself to the final of the women’s 50-meter butterfly S5 at the 17th Paralympic Games here.
Otom reached the wall in 46.85 seconds and made it to the late afternoon (12 midnight in Manila) medal race fifth overall.
Lu Dong, the gold medalist in their 50m backstroke encounter the other day, topped the heats in 40.50 followed by silver medalist He Shenggao (43.11) and Sevilay Ozturk of Turkey (44.70).
“Pinag-aralan ko mabuti ang dapat gawin sa swim na ito. Lalo ko pang pagbubutihin sa final,’’ said the 21-year-old Otom, the reigning Asean Para Games champion in the same event.
Philippine sports officials witnessed Otom’s qualification race led by Philippine Sports Commission Chairman Richard Bachmann, commissioner Fritz Gaston, executive director Paolo Tatad as well as Philippine Paralympic Committee president Michael Barredo, PPC secretary general Goody Custodio and chef de mission Ral Rosario.
“Angel had a better swim compared to her previous event. Talagang tinutukan sya ni coach Tony (Ong) for this swim,’’ said para swimming deputy coach Bryan Ong.
