Ziyad Zolkefli threw 17.94m shot put at Tokyo Paralympics

Malaysia's Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli threw 17.94m in men's shot put (F20) of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics today (31 Aug).

The 31-year-old surpassed his own world record of 17.29m he set in 2017 world Paralympic championships.  

He opened with a distance exceeding his world record by 2cm (17.31m) before registering 16.87m, and then his best distance in the third throw.

Ziyad Zolkefli has thrown 17.94m in men's shot put

His fourth throw gave him a distance of 17.62m, but the rain started shortly, right before the final two throws, and seen affecting all the competitors; Ziyad's last two throws were 16.31m and 16.39m, respectively.

Ziyad's best throwing distance also exceeded the Malaysian able-bodied national record of 17.53m set by Adi Alifuddin en-route to win silver at 2011 SEA Games.

Very unfortunate that he was competing "under protest" and declared as DNS (did not start), along with two other athletes Jordi Congo (Ecuador) and Todd Hodgetts (Australia).

The Gold medal went to Ukrainian Maksym Koval who threw 17.34m, and officially breaking Ziyad's world record.

Ziyad won gold medal during the last Paralympic edition in Rio, throwing a distance of 16.84m, which was a new games record.

Men's shot put (F20) Tokyo Paralympics - official result