Runnin g with an exosuit
THE story of Mohd Ridzuuan Mohd Puzi is one of triumph. DiagnosedD with cerebral palsy at thhe age of one, Ridzuan, a van-drivver’s son, has gone from flipping buurgers in the sleepy border town of Padang Besar in Perlis to winning tthe nation’s first-ever gold mmedal at the Paralympics in Rio last year.
The 29-yea r-old clocked 122.07 seconds on thet men’s T36 (cerrebral palsy) 1100m dash, breakinng the record of 12.25 secondss held by Ukrainee’s Roman Pavlykk since 2008..
Hee is no strannger to techhnology – Riddzuan uses the same exoskeleton used by badminton champion Datuk Lee Chong Wei, squash queen Datuk Nicol David and motorcycle racer Zulfahmi Khairuddin.
Known as Lila Exogen, it was invented by Joe Dolcetti, the chief executive officer of Sportboleh. Dolcetti claims that Lila Exogen has a corrective influence on Ridzuan’s muscles and joints that have been affected by cerebral palsy.
“We can put an extra 1.5kg of weights on him in strategic places and it makes his muscles work harder,” he says.
When used for the long term, it will help the athlete become stronger in their weak areas, he says. It also has an immediate effect – after just running a couple of rounds with the weights, an athlete can be faster by 0.2 to 0.4 seconds when he runs without the weights.
“His muscles still act like they are carrying the heavier load and will contract much stronger, more powerful and faster,” says Dolcetti.
A bio-sensor line is currently being developed with a joint partnership with AUT Millenium Institute with AUT Sport Performance Research Institute of New Zealand which will feature movement modelling and skill analysis.
“It will allow us to capture detailed analysis of Ridzuan’s strengths and weaknesses, while running,” he says. It’s expected to be available in mid-2017.
In the meantime, Ridzuan is busy getting ready to defend his gold medal at the IPC World Athletics Championships in London in July 2017.