KUALA LUMPUR: Abdul Latif Romly may have left the Olympic Stadium in a wheelchair on Saturday, but he was still sporting his trademark grin after successfully defending his gold medal in the men's long jump T20 at the Tokyo Paralympics.
Latif was not able to complete his sixth and final attempt after landing awkwardly and seriously injuring his groin during his fifth jump.
The 24-year-old's 7.45m effort earlier, however, was more than enough to secure him the gold in the wet conditions.
Latif, who is intellectually impaired, admitted he was disappointed not to achieve all his goals, but was nonetheless pleased with retaining the gold.
"I am grateful to win the gold again. I spent eighth months away from my family (in a Covid-19 secure bubble) to train for this competition, and I believe it has paid off," said the current world record holder (7.64m).
"I am glad that I was able to prove that my win in Rio five years ago was not a fluke.
"But I am a little bit disappointed that I was not able to finish, this has never happened to me before.
"One of my goals here was also to break my world record.
"I was hoping to exceed the 8m mark here, and I believed I had a chance because I had come close to that in in training."
Latif said he felt excruciating pain after his fifth jump and was not able to walk after that.
His coach Shahrul Amri Suhaimi said Latif ia scheduled to undergo a scan to ascertain the extent of the damage.
"It was quite tricky due to the rain, and I had slipped during one of my previous attempts and initially felt a slight twinge (in groin area)," added Latif.
"But during my fifth attempt, I felt it pop and it was terrible. I have had to use a wheelchair since then. I am not sure how many months it will take to heal."
Latif added that he was not thinking about making up for the gold medal that national teammate Ziyad Zolkefli lost following his disqualification from the men's shot put F20 on Aug 31.
"I was not thinking about what happened to Ziyad, and I wasn't trying to win it for him because I knew that if I did that I would feel pressured," said the Perlis-born athlete.
"When I saw that Ziyad was sad, I also felt very sad. He told me not to feel pressured and just told me to do it to the best of my own abilities.
"So I was just focused on doing it for myself first. But now that I've won it, I would like to dedicate this to everyone who has supported me and all Malaysians."
Latif's victory helped the national contingent achieve its three gold medal target at the Tokyo Games.
For the record, Malaysia achieved their best-ever Paralympic haul with three gold and two silver.