Abdul Latif defends gold medal, rewrites championship record at World Para Athletics meet

National paralympic athlete, Abdul Latif Romly rewrote the championship record en route to defending his gold medal in the men's long jump T20 (intellectual disability) event at the 2017 World Para Athletics Championships in London on Sunday.

The 2016 Rio Olympics gold medallist recorded 7.37 metres, 0.02 metres more than his previous championship record at the 2015 World Championships in Doha, Qatar.

Croatian athlete, Zoran Talic ,who is also the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medallist, took the silver medal with 7.32m while Dmytro Prudnikov of Ukraine had to settle for the bronze with 7.12m in the meet held at London Stadium in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park.

Earlier, two Malaysian athletes – Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi and Mohd Nasharuddin Mohamad-- qualified for the final in the men's 200m T36 (cerebral palsy) and 400m T20 (intellectual disability) events respectively.

Mohamad Ridzuan finished in third place in first heat with a time of 25.39 seconds while Mohd Nasharuddin came in fourth place in the first heat after clocking 50.03 seconds.

The final of both events will take place on Monday.

-- BERNAMA