Even in the Paralympics Games, there is controversy over victory and defeat.
Malaysian shot putter Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli appeared to have won gold in the shot put in the F20 class, but after the victory on Tuesday, he was disqualified because he had shown up late for the competition.
International Paralympic Committee (IPC) spokesman Craig Spence said that Zolkefli and two others — who did not reach the podium — were allowed to compete under protest after they failed to appear on time for the event.
Photo: AP
“They were late. They may have had a logical reason for being late, and therefore we allowed them to compete and look at the facts of the matter afterward,” Spence said.
A statement from World Para Athletics, which governs track and field for parasports, said that a referee had determined after the event that “there was no justifiable reason for the athletes’ failure to report” on time.
An appeal was rejected, it said.
The disqualification bumped Maksym Koval of Ukraine up to gold, while Ukraine teammate Oleksandr Yarovyi took silver and the bronze went to Efstratios Nikolaidis of Greece.
Spence said that the disqualification was met with anger on social media.
It as “very abusive,” he said, adding that much of it targeted the Ukrainians.
“We are now seeing comments on all our social media posts that have nothing to do with the men’s shot put F20 event,” Spence said.
He said the Ukrainian Paralympic Committee “was getting a lot of abuse from Malaysians.”
“I’m sorry. Rules are rules,” Spence said. “The decision was taken. It wasn’t the Ukrainian’s fault that the Malaysian was late.”
Spence said that the three had arrived three minutes late.
He said that he did not see this as a harsh penalty.
“Others get there five minutes early,” he said.
Spence said an excuse given was that the Malaysian and the two others said that they “didn’t hear the announcement or it was in a language” they did not understand.
The F20 class in shot put is for athletes with intellectual disabilities.
The Malaysian delegation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Early in 2019, the IPC stripped Malaysia of the World Para Swimming Championships for being unwilling to guarantee that Israeli athletes could compete.
Spence said the reaction then was similar.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS