Otom hot on Paralympic medal

PARIS, France — Angel Otom got a simple order ahead of the women’s 50-meter butterfly S5 event of the Paris Paralympics: Give your best and make it to the finals.

Expect Otom to heed that instruction when she marches to the La Defense Arena pool here to shoot for the country’s first medal in eight years in this prestigious event for differently able athletes.

She will be kicking off her bid in the preliminary heats on Friday at 4 p.m. (Manila time), where she will be swimming side by side with reigning champion Lu Dong of China, who will be gunning for her second individual gold.

Ranked No. 2 in the world with a time 46.39 seconds entering the quadrennial sportsfest, the armless wonder from Olongapo City have learned her lessons from her Paralympic debut two days ago when she finished sixth in the women’s 50-meter backstroke S5 race. Now with Lu on Lane 4 and she on Lane 3, Otom will be tested to the hilt if she has what it takes to keep up with the Chinese star known as the “Armless Mermaid,” with the top eight qualifiers from two heats advancing to the finals set at 11:59 p.m. (Manila time).

“Sayang, sayang,” the swimmer said two days ago after matching the powerhouse Chinese trio of Lu, He Shenggao and Liu Yu stroke for stroke, seemingly poised to achieve a podium finish and break the country’s eight-year-old dry spell at the Games, before running out of steam in the last 15 meters.

Deputy para swimming coach Brian Ong, the head coach’s son, disclosed that boosting Otom’s mental toughness in her last event at Europe’s largest indoor arena was one aspect they would work on in the stint supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

“We are looking forward to her outing in the women’s 50-meter butterfly on Friday,” said the coach, confident that the athlete would go all out in the country’s last-ditch bid to win a medal in this meet featuring the crème dela crème of physically-challenged bets from 168 nations.

The late table tennis player Josephine Medina was the last to achieve a podium finish as she brought home a bronze medal from the 2016 edition in Rio de Janeiro.