The National Sports Council has been ordered to obtain an initial report on the withdrawal of the gold medal from national shot putter Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.
Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu (above) said he also ordered the sports council, together with the Malaysian Paralympic Council, to set up a committee to look into the incident comprehensively.
He said the committee is to provide an action plan now that the official protest and appeals had been done. It is to also come up with an approach to address such an incident if it recurs.
“I also wish to urge all quarters against pointing fingers at anyone in this matter.
“But most importantly, all quarters including IPC (International Paralympic Committee) and World Para Athletics (WPA) must look again at all regulations including those requiring wisdom in managing them,” he said in a statement today.
Faizal also gave his assurance that Ziyad would still be received as a hero with national pride upon his arrival at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) on Friday (Sept 3).
Yesterday, the sporting world was shocked by the incident in Tokyo after Ziyad was denied the gold medal in the F20 men’s shot put event (intellectual disability) with a record throw of 17.94m, which was a new world record.
He was classified as Did Not Start (DNS) following protests against him by the Ukrainian team who claimed Ziyad was late in reporting himself at the waiting room before the competition took place.
The controversy on the seventh day of the event saw Ukrainian athlete Maksym Koval announced as the winner of the gold medal with a throw of 17.34m to simultaneously break the world record belonging to Ziyad, at 17.29m, which he created at the 2017 London World Para Athletics Championship.
Meanwhile, Faizal said his ministry viewed the incident seriously and regretted the procedure of the Organising Committee especially the WPA and IPC in considering the circumstances, besides the aspiration and spirit in organising the Paralympics.
“We are disappointed because in our utter faithfulness in standing behind IPC to support the games which are conducted in a life-threatening condition to our athletes, a slight delay, if it actually took place, was not given appropriate consideration.
“What’s more, the athletes have waited for five years but their hopes and spirits were destroyed by a delay of not even five minutes... this is something which is very sad,” he added.
- Bernama
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.