KUALA LUMPUR, 16 July 2017:
Malaysia’s para athlete Muhamad Ziyad Zolkefli smashed another world record in the men’s shot putt F20 event at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championship in London yesterday.
At the event held in the evening at the London Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Muhammad Ziyad threw a distance of 17.29m to rewrite his own previous world record of 16.84m set at last year’s Rio Paralympic Games in Brazil.
The silver medal was won by Ecuador’s Stalin David Mosquera with a distance of 16.61m, while 2012 Paralympics gold medallist Tod Hodgetts of Australia claimed the bronze with a throw of 15.94m.
“I came here to bring something back to my country. This is the second world record for me and I am so proud. I have trained so hard for this.
“I woke up this morning (Saturday) and thought I could break the world record. I always dream that I will do it and tonight I did. World record, Paralympic champion and now world champion – that sounds good.
“I went totally mental when I saw the Australian’s distance but I knew it wasn’t that far. I knew it was wrong.
“I got really emotional but my coach settled me down. It did disturb me but now I am extra happy to win,” said Muhamad Ziyad as quoted in International Paralympic Committee official website.
Later, national paralympic athlete, Abdul Latif Romly rewrote the championship record en route to defending his gold medal in the men’s long jump T20 (intellectual disability) event.
The 2016 Rio Olympics gold medallist recorded 7.37m – 0.02m more than his previous championship record at the 2015 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.
Croatian athlete, Zoran Talic ,who is also the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist, took the silver medal with 7.32m while Dmytro Prudnikov of Ukraine had to settle for the bronze with 7.12m in the meet held at London Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.
Earlier, two Malaysian athletes – Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi and Mohd Nasharuddin Mohamad– qualified for the final in the men’s 200m T36 (cerebral palsy) and 400m T20 (intellectual disability) events respectively.
– Bernama