Local official: Ziyad deserves awards despite disqualification
SIBU: Sarawak Taekwondo Association (PTNS) vice president Datuk Seri Lau Kueng Chai would like the government to expedite awards and recognition to national shot putter Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli despite his disqualification at the recent 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Lau said it has been more than three weeks since Ziyad’s disqualification and the country’s sporting fraternity have yet to learn whether the government is going to reward him with the incentives.
“The disqualification is not only disappointing but heartbreaking.
The award is therefore deemed necessary as an appreciation and recognition on his untold sacrifices to the country and I believe it will also mean a whole world to him,” he added.
Muhammad Ziyad heaved the shot put to a world record distance of 17.94m in Tokyo to initially retained the gold medal in the F20 (intellectual impairment) category.
However, following a protest by Ukraine he was disqualified and classified as Did Not Start (DNS), reportedly for reporting late for the event.
Ukraine’s Maksym Koval was announced as the gold medallist with a throw of 17.34m.
The disqualification means Muhammad Ziyad will miss out on the RM1 million reward under the National Sports Incentives Scheme for winning a Paralympic gold medal as well as an additional reward of RM100,000 from FWD Takaful.
Lau said it would be meaningless to point the finger at what caused Ziyad’s disqualification.
“A mistake already done could not be undone. What we ought to do is to ensure that such an unfortunate incident would never recur again,” he said.
Still, Lau said it was a joke to even think about how such an incident could have occurred especially when it was a worldclass event.
During his years as team manager, Lau said he had regularly brought taekwondo teams to take part in international outings.
“The athletes arriving late at the call centres (to report) were never an issue and I will always ensure that they arrived at the call centre one or two hours before,” he said, adding this was to give the athletes ample time to warm up and be familiar with the venue.
“However, in Muhammad Ziyad case, we are not sure what actually happened and perhaps, only his coach knows best,” he added.
Lau said Muhammad Ziyad is a para athlete and the team managers, coaches and other assistants should play their essential roles in assisting him for his event.
Despite his disqualification, Muhammad Ziyad should be given the same cash reward, recognition and other kind or retirement schemes in line with the Malaysia Paralympic Committee guidelines, he opined.
“All our athletes trained and worked extremely hard for a number of years before they will compete in an event and it is really unbelievable that this kind of mistake could happen at the world event,” he added.
“Hopefully, the Ministry of Youth and Sports will come up with a solution in the case of Muhammad Ziyad which I am sure will spur him to work even harder for future tournaments,” he added.
On Sept 3, the Ministry of Youth and Sports agreed to set up an internal investigation supervised by the National Sports Council (NSC) with the involvement of independent members to probe the matter.