KUALA LUMPUR: Nazmi Nasri made a golden debut in the World Para Athletics Championships in Kobe, Japan today.
The 21-year-old from Johor won the men's long jump T37 (cerebral palsy) gold with a personal best of 6.13m to qualify for the Paris Paralympics from Aug 28 to Sept 8.
Greece's Konstantinos Kamaras was second (6.01) and Brazil's Mateus Evangelista Cardoso (6.00) was third out of eight competitors.
Nazmi's previous best was 5.74m, registered at the FT All Comers in Bukit Jalil in February.
"Today, I also qualified for the para Olympics. I could not have asked for a better outing," said Nazmi.
Team manager Zarrawi Ravi Abdullah said they knew that Nazmi was a medal prospect and had expected him to do a personal best and win a gold medal.
He said three other national athletes have also qualified for the Paris Paralympics. They are Ziyad Zolkefli (F20 shot putt), Eddy Bernard (T44 100m) and Latif Romly (F20 long jump).
Ziyad had earlier won gold, Eddy got the silver and Wong Kar Gee took the men's long jump T12 bronze.
Meanwhile, veteran Ridzuan Puzi clocked 12.50s to finish sixth in the men's 100m T36 final (cerebral palsy).