DAVAO City's Ernie Gawilan registered a new personal best time but failed to meet the Rio Olympics qualifying record in men's 100-meter freestyle event of the ongoing IPC Swimming World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
The 24-year-old Asian Paragames swimming triple bronze medalist clocked a total of one minute and 6.12 seconds (1:06.12), beating his own record of 1:06.16 in first heat of the event Thursday.
"Wala nako na beat ang record ma’am pero best time lang (I didn't break the qualifying record, just my best time)," Gawilan messaged Sun.Star Davao via Facebook.
Gawilan, who hails from Sasa, earlier said he must meet the 1:02.95 time to book a slot in the 2016 Paralympics slated in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.
The lone Filipino entry in the swim fest finished sixth in the first heat as Chinese Yinan Wang timed 59.46 placed first followed by Ukraine's Bohdan Hrynenko (59.81) and China's Maodang Song 59.81 in second and third, respectively.
Gawilan, however, will still have two more events to keep his Rio hopes alive. He was set to compete in men's 400m freestyle and in men's 100m backstroke.
The Tony Ong-coached Dabawenyo tanker also said recently that he will do his very best to qualify in the Paralympics.