KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s Afiq Ali Hanafiah sped to the 100m gold in the World Para Athletics Grand Prix in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
The 25-year-old Afiq, competing in the T11/12 category (low visual acuity), clocked 11.48 seconds at the Dubai Club Stadium.
Though the time was slower than his personal best of 11.20s (clocked at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games), it was enough to beat Japan’s Shunya Yamaji into second place by 0.15s.
Sweden’s Luis Goncalves took the bronze with 11.73s.
Afiq said: “I didn’t expect to win the gold, My target was to improve on my best but the winds here were too strong.”
Afiq’s success is the first time that a Malaysia won a gold in the 100m event at the World Para Athletics Grand Prix.
Afiq, who won bronze in the 100m at the 2018 Commonwealth Para Games, had clinched the gold at the 2017 Para Sea Games.