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Outrage after Malaysian shot putter stripped of Paralympic gold for turning up late
- Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli was allowed to compete in the F20 final despite being late. But he was later disqualified, along with two other athletes
- Malaysia’s Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin condemned the decision as ‘shameful’. The country’s king has also weighed in on the controversy
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Agence France-Pressein Kuala Lumpur
The International Paralympic Committee has defended a decision to disqualify a Malaysian shot putter for turning up late, leading to him being stripped of a gold medal, as anger erupted in his homeland.
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Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli was allowed to compete in the F20 final in Tokyo on Tuesday despite being late, and went on to win a gold medal and break the world record.
But he was later disqualified, along with two other athletes, by officials who determined they had no good reason for their late arrival at the call room. The gold went instead to Ukraine’s Maksym Koval. Ukraine teammate Oleksandr Yarovyi took silver, while bronze went to Efstratios Nikolaidis of Greece.
International Paralympic Committee spokesman Craig Spence said on Wednesday a referee determined there was “no justifiable reason” for Ziyad turning up late, and an appeal was subsequently rejected.
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Despite this, Spence said the Ukrainian athlete was now “getting a lot of abuse from Malaysians”.
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