Muhammad Ziyad grabs bronze medal for M’sia

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Muhamad Ziyad Zolkefli

LONDON: Malaysian paralympian Muhamad Ziyad Zolkefli secured a bronze medal at the ongoing London Paralympic Games here on Friday.

Muhamad Ziyad, 22, who hails from Gombak Selangor, pulled off the feat in the men’s shot put F20 category (cognitive disability) when he threw a distance of 15.21 metres.

This is Malaysia’s second medal at this Games. The first, a silver, was won by Hasihan Sanawi in the men’s individual recurve W1/W2 (wheelchair) event on Monday.The gold was won by Todd Hodgetts of Australia who threw 16.29 metres while Sweden’s Jeffrey Ige took the silver (15.50 metres).

All the three winners broke the Paralympics 12-year-old record of 13.10 metres set by Krzysztof Kaczmarek of Poland at the Sydney Paralympics in 2000.

“I am very happy to have won a medal at this Paralympics. I had targeted a medal finish.

“I dedicate this medal to both my parents and all the people of Malaysia who have been unwavering in their support for us (Malaysian paralympians),” said Muhammad Ziyad, who is making his Paralympics debut at this London Games.

He said he was under no pressure when competing in the event even though his third throw was disqualified by the judges.

“It was my fault but my concentration was not affected. I gave it all I had,” he said.

He recorded the 15.21 metres in his second attempt after matching his personal best of 13.79 metres in the first.

He did 14.35m in his fourth attempt and 14.13m and 14.36m in the fifth and sixth respectively.

Meanwhile, Adderin Majurin only managed to come out 15th out of 20 competitors in javelin in the men’s F32/33/34 category(cerebral palsy).

His best throw was 24.26  metres.

The event was won by Wang Yanzhang of China who recorded 49.03 metres while the silver and bronze went to Hani Alnakhli of Saudi Arabia (34.65m) and Algeria’s Lahouari Bahlaz dari Algeria (22.30m) respectively. — Bernama