National track cyclist and Olympic medallist, Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang, took to his Instagram to advise para shot put athlete, Ziyad Zolkefli, following his gold medal disqualification at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics for technical reasons on Tuesday (August 31st).
Photo via Sinar Harian
“Congratulations Ziyad. Be patient Ziyad.
“I want to congratulate my friend, Ziyad Zolkefli on his excellent performance in breaking the world record at the Tokyo Paralympic Games,” he said via his Instagram page.
In his post, Azizul also shared his own painful experience when he won the gold medal at the New Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, but was disqualified, too.
“It’s hard to swallow, but my advice as a fellow athlete is to try to accept this and move forward. Of course, I also hope the protest from Malaysia will be accepted, and Ziyad will get his gold medal. We, Malaysians, all know that Ziyad is the real champion and the gold medal has been clearly ‘snatched away,’” he added.
Such great advice from a fellow Olympic winner!
Malaysia’s ace Paralympian Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli could only express his apologies after missing the opportunity to defend his Rio 2016 gold in the Men’s F20 Shot Put (Physical Impairment) event at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
Ziyad, who broke two world records could have won gold, but was classified as “Did Not Start” or DNS due to a protest lodged against him by the Ukrainian team who claimed that he reported in late to the call room.
Similar protests were lodged against Australia’s Todd Hodgets and Ecuador’s Jordi Patricio Congo Villalba, both of whom were also classified as DNS.
We Malaysians are proud of you and your achievements, Ziyad. Thank you for representing the country!
By: Aishah Akashah Ahadiat
