Slippery track, Dek Wan says almost fell
Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi of Malaysia, Evgenii Shvetsov of the Russian Paralympic Committee and Yifei Yang of China in action, Olympic Stadium, Tokyo, Japan - September 3, 2021. - REUTERS
TOKYO: The slippery surface of the track due to a drizzle at the Olympic Stadium here since early this morning put paid to Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi's dream of defending his gold won at Rio 2016.
Competing in the men's 100m T36 (physical impairment) sprint final, Mohamad Ridzuan, who ran well in the first 50m, admitted that the slippery track conditions caused him to almost fall in the last 10m of the race.
"I've done my best, if it was not slippery, I could have got a medal," he told Bernama when met after the race.
Despite ending his second Paralympic appearance without any medals, the spirit of the 33 -year-old runner, who is more fondly known as 'Dek Wan', is still strong to participate in upcoming meets including the Paris 2024 edition.
Mohamad Ridzuan, who suffers from cerebral palsy, is also determined to reclaim the gold medal won by Chinese athlete Deng Peicheng in the event.
Deng Peicheng pulled off a surprise when he not only won the gold but also broke the Paralympic record held by Australia's James Turner. Turner did 11.87s in the second qualifying heat yesterday to set a new record but Deng bettered it by clocking 11.85s in the final.
James had to settle for silver with a time of 12.00s while the bronze belonged to Alexis Sebastian Chavez of Argentina who set a time of 12.02s.
Mohamad Ridzuan had previously made history when he contributed the country's first gold medal in the Paralympic Games since the country first participated in the prestigious games in the 1972 edition in Heidelberg, Germany, in the same event at Rio 2016.
-- BERNAMA
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