JAKARTA, 13 Oct 2018:
Young Sabahan athlete Eddy Bernard delivered the country’s 15th gold medal at the Asian Para Games when he won the long jump on the seventh day of the games.
Eddy, 17, who is making his debut at the championship, made a 6.30m leap to set a new games record in the T44 T62/64 category.
“I am very happy, this is my first appearance at the Asian Para Games, the victory is for the country,” said Eddy who has cerebral palsy.
Malaysia has earlier garnered its 14th gold medal via paralympian champion Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli in the shot put F20 category with a new games record of 16.94m.
Now Malaysia has a haul of 15 gold, 24 silver and 21 bronze medals and is placed eighth with China topping the medal tally with 161 gold, 84 silver and 55 bronze medals.
Malaysia is expected to improve its achievement of 15 gold medal won in the 2014 edition in Incheon, South Korea as national para athletes will be in action in cycling finals at the Jakarta International Velodrome today.
National cyclists will be competing in the final of the men’s 1km C1-2-3, men’s 1km C4-5, men’s 1km B category, women’s 500m C1-2-3 category and women’s 1km B category.
The Asian Para Games will come to a close tonight with the closing ceremony scheduled at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium at 7pm.
Forty three countries are participating in the games which began on Oct 6.
– Bernama