KUALA LUMPUR: A change in category and recurring injury troubled the national Paralympic athletics squad on the first day of athletics competition at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Two athletes expected to at least qualify for the finals, failed to realise the dream when they were eliminated during the heats.
T13 category 100m athlete Mohamad Faizal Aideal Suhaimi admitted that the decision to change his category had affected the focus to perform at the best level in his debut at the prestigious Games.
“I felt very disappointed when I found out about the change in category. But as I was already here, I tried my best. I am not satisfied with today’s result,” he was quoted as saying on the National Sports Council’s (MSN) Facebook page.
The 21-year-old athlete from Kedah finished sixth, with a time of 11.30 seconds.
Mohamad Faizal Aideal’s best personal record of 11.27s was in the T12 category.
Nasharuddin Mohd was also frustrated at not being able to perform at his best after an old injury came back to haunt him midway through the 400m T20 event heats.
Nasharuddin finish the race in fifth, clocking 51.75s, far behind his personal best of 49.65s recorded at the Para Asean Games in Singapore last year.
“I was disappointed, I have never recorded such a (slow) time. It has been long since I suffered the injury, but at the 200m mark, the pain came back. So, I could not perform any better,” he said.
Meanwhile, head coach R.Jaganathan said he was disappointed with the results of both his athletes of whom he had placed hopes of earning medals at the Games.
“Today was not meant to be (for us). It was not what we had expected. Nasharuddin was far from his personal record of 49.65s at the Para Asean Games in Singapore. Aideal, I know he was a little upset after the change in category from T12 to T13,” he said.
National Chef De Mission to the Paralympic Games Dr Ang Kean Koo when contacted by Bernama said the contingent had to accept the decision to change the category of Mohamad Faizal Aideal made three days prior to the event.
He said Mohamad Faizal Aideal had to undergo reclassification as his original classification at T12 was not recognised.
“After conducting an eye examination, he was promoted to T13, that is one class higher. We had to accept the decision,” he said. --BERNAMA