National Athletes Aiming for Greater Heights to Qualify for Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

BY: Patrick Beech

Six national athletes are fully prepared to face the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships in Paris, France. They are currently on a mission to grab a ticket to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

The two-time champion of Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, Datuk Abdul Latif Romly, is certainly the country's best shot at grabbing a gold medal in the tournament held at the Charlety Stadium.

The long jump champion certainly wants to re-attempt a gold medal which was stripped away from him and handed to Dutch athlete, Ranki Oberoi during the last event in Dubai, United Arab Emirates in 2019.

His coach, Syahrul Amri Suhaimi expects the 26-year-old athlete from Perlis to be able to give his best jump when he goes down to open the competition on July 17.

"Preparation is in good condition. Now we are trying to adapt to the atmosphere of the competition where training is held in the morning because Latif's event will be at 9 am.

"All the selected athletes will definitely do their best whether it's winning medals or personal achievements. This is also their best chance to grab an early ticket to Paris 2024," he said.

Also as backup are two other Rio 2016 Paralympic gold medalists, namely Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi (100m T36) and Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli (shot put F20).

The remaining three athletes taking on the national challenge are Muhamad Ashraf Muhammad Haisham (1,500m T46), Nani Shahiera Zawawi (T20 long jump) and Wong Kar Gee who will compete in the T12 long jump tonight.