Abdul Latif out to defend World Paralympic championships gold

KUALA LUMPUR: World Paralympics champion, Rio Paralympics gold medallist and World record holder Abdul Latif Romly is determined to defend the T20 (Intellectual Disability) event long jump gold at the 2017 World Paralympics Championships to be held in the London Stadium at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, England from July 14-23.

The 2016 Rio Paralympicsgold medallist who had won the gold at the 2015 World Paralympics Championships in Doha, Qatar after clearing 7.35m believes he can win the title and improve on his distance in London.

“My target is to defend the gold medal and improve my distance. I am not sure if I can renew the record but I am going to give it my best shot,” he told Bernama recently.

Abdul Latif believes his main contenders for the title would be 2016 Rio Paralympics silver medallist Zoran Talic from Croatia and Dmytro Prudnikov from Ukraine.

The Perlis-born Abdul Latif had set the world Paralympics long jump record with a distance of 7.60m at the Rio Paralympics last year.

Meanwhile, Abdul Latif who is expected to compete in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games with able-bodied athletes, would rather his coach Mohd Syahrul Amri Mohd Suhaimi, make the decision.

“My coach has told me to concentrate on the World Championships. He might consider my participation in the SEA Games if I did well in London. Furthermore, I have just recovered from an ankle injury. God Willing, I will get an opportunity to compete in the SEA Games,” he said.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had earlier given the green light for Abdul Latif to compete against able-bodied athletes in the SEA Games but like others he would have to qualify on merit by beating the qualifying mark set by the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM).