Jerrold Mangliwan redeemed himself from a disappointing finish in his first event with a new personal record in the final en route to a sixth-place finish at the men’s 1500 meters T52 event of the 2020 Paralympic Games at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, Sunday evening.
With only seven racers entered, the event went straight into the medal race. The veteran Filipino wheelchair racer attempted to hold on but got caught up in the end. Nonetheless, he joined the fray in setting up new marks as he smashed his previous personal best with a time of 3:58.24 – way faster than his 4:09.95.
Expectedly, reigning Paralympic champion Raymond Marton of the USA and current world leader Sato Tomoki of Japan pulled away from the rest of the pack early to battle for the gold. This left the other competitors to race for the bronze medal with the other hometown bet Ueyonabaru Hirozaku leading the way.
Mangliwan, on his part, was staying close to Ueyonabaru up to about two laps to go with Austria’s Thomas Geierspichler and Mexico’s Leonardo De Jesus Perez Juarez, before the last two pulled away slightly to catch up with the speeding Japanese.
The 41-year-old could not recover from there and had to settle to fend off Isaiah Rigo from pushing him into the last place, and due to the blistering pace set by the leaders, also carved the new mark for himself.
In the end, Sato took the gold with a new Paralympic record, smashing the previous one set by the consequent silver medalist Raymond Martin, at 3:29,13, which is almost 11 seconds faster than the former mark. The American set a new American record in the process for this time, however, with 3:29.72.
Ueyonobaru captured the bronze likewise with a new personal best of 3:44.17, 10 seconds ahead of Geierspichler’s finish.
Mangliwan will take the track for one last time in these Games as he competes for the final of the men’s 100 meters T52 set at 10:07 a.m. on Friday, September 3.
