Malaysia's appeal to the World Para Athletics to overturn Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli's disqualification from the Shot Put F20 event at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games was unsuccessful.
According to Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Ti Lian Ker, Malaysia will lodge further appeals at the International Paralympics Council to recognise Ziyad's participation and record their results.
"However, the appeal can only be lodged after the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games have concluded. For now, we are forced to accept the decision," he said.
Ziyad and fellow athletes from Ukraine and Australia were marked as "did not start (DNS)" for the event yesterday after failing to appear at the call room at the scheduled time.
Ti explained that the trio was delayed by rain and large foot traffic, eventually reporting to the call room late. This prompted Ukraine to lodge a protest against the trio's participation.
However, Ziyad was still allowed to participate "under protest" and produced a world record heave of 17.94m - smashing his Rio de Janeiro 2016 Summer Paralympics gold medal-winning performance of 16.84m.
With Ziyad's results officially unrecorded, Ukraine went on to claim the gold and silver medals for the event.
At 6.25am Malaysian time today, Ziyad uploaded a message on his Facebook page, apologising to all Malaysians and thanking them for their support.
- Mkini
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