KUALA LUMPUR – 2016 Paralympic Games champion Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi is expected to book an early slot in the 100 metres (m) T36 (physical disability) event in the 2024 edition in Paris, France.
To achieve that goal, national sprint coach Hamberi Mahat is targeting for Ridzuan, fondly known as “Dek Wan”, to advance to the finals and finish in the top four at the World Para Sports Championships taking place in Paris from July 8 to 17.
“Dek Wan needs to get top four at the world championships because those who finish in that position automatically qualify for the 2024 Paralympic Games.
“The current strategy is to ensure that he qualifies early because if he succeeds in doing so, I can focus on early preparations for him ahead of Paris 2024,” he said when contacted.
Hamberi also set a target for the 35-year-old veteran athlete to record 12.20 seconds (s) at the world championships.
“If Mohamad Ridzuan can record 12.20s, he is likely to get a bronze medal,” he said.
If he fails to meet the target at the world championships, Hamberi said Ridzuan still has the chance to confirm an automatic slot to Paris 2024 by getting the top two positions in the finals at the 2022 Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China, set to be held from October 22 to 28 this year.
However, the former national athlete expects a tough challenge ahead to defend the gold his protege won at the 2018 Para Asian Games in Indonesia or at least grab a silver medal in China.
He said Ridzuan is scheduled to face tough competition from two representatives of the home team, namely the defending Paralympic Games champion Deng Peicheng and Yang Yifei, who emerged as the fastest runner in Asia this year with a record of 11.84s in a tournament in Nottwil, Switzerland, in May.
Meanwhile, the 45-year-old coach admitted Ridzuan had difficulties adapting to the training techniques he used to speed up the runner’s acceleration.
“Since February, we have been doing video analysis and detecting this problem,” he said adding that the issues were being addressed. – Bernama, July 2, 2023
