Thrower Cendy, swimmer Angel light up Paris

PARIS, France — Wheelchair thrower Cendy Asusano and swimmer Angel Mae Otom emerged as the brightest bets of the lean and mean Philippine delegation in the 17th Paralympic Games.

As the curtains fell at Stade De France on Sunday, Asusano and Otom will return to the Philippines with renewed vigor and confidence as they were able to prove that the future looks bright for them.

Making her debut in the quadrennial elite meet, Asusano emerged as a pleasant surprise on the penultimate day of the Games, hurling the javelin to a personal best of 15.05 on her first attempt for fourth place at the Stade de France the previous day.

The proud Pasig resident just fell one rung short of a podium finish and almost ended the country’s eight-year-old dry spell in the sportsfest since the late table tennis player Josepine Medina took home a bronze medal in the 2016 Rio edition.

A double gold medalist in last year’s Cambodia ASEAN Para Games, her impressive heave was 42 centimeters better — an eye-popping equivalent of 16.534 inches — than her previous standard of 14.63 meters in also placing fourth in the world para championships last May in Kobe, Japan.

“It felt as if I won the gold because it was my first time to surpass 15 meters,” Asusano said.

Until Asusano’s penultimate day heroics, it seemed like para swimmer Otom, also making her maiden outing at the Games, would be the star of Philippine show after reaching her second finals event in three days, clocking a new personal best of 45.78 seconds in placing fifth in the women’s 50-meter butterfly S5 race.

She broke her previous personal-best 47.52 seconds in the world para championships last year in Manchester, England, becoming the first Filipino para swimmer to enter the finals in both her events of the campaign supported by the Philippine Sports Commission.

The 21-year-old armless swimming wonder from Olongapo City, Zambales had also advanced to the finals of the women’s 50-meter backstroke S5 race, finishing sixth, keeping pace with the daunting Chinese trio led by defending champion Lu Dong until the last 15 meters.

Long the pillars of the PH para team in international play, wheelchair racer Jerrold Mangliwan and para swimmer Ernie Gawilan likewise reached the finals of the 400-meter T52 and 400-meter freestyle events, respectively.

Unable to get a firm grip of wheelchair racer under rainy conditions, Mangliwan was eighth among the finalists in a time of 1:04.55 while Gawilan was sixth again in his fore in a time of 5:03.18.