Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli
Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli is a Paralympic athlete from Malaysia who competes in T20 classification shot put events. He is the current world record holder in his event. Zolkefli represented Malaysia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where he won the bronze medal in the shot put. As well as Paralympic success, Zolkefli has won both the World Championship and Asian Para Games titles in his sport, in 2013 and 2014 respectively.Early life
Born in Selangor, Ziyad suffered intellectual impairment which was identified in pre-school. He attended Sekolah Menengah Teknik Tanah Merah, Kelantan and was the eldest of four siblings. Before he joined the National Sports Council, Ziyad was selling kueh teow in Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman.Athletics career
In 2012, Ziyad came to prominence when he won the bronze medal – with a throw of 15.21m – in the men’s F20 shot putt event at the Paralympic Games in London.
He then created history when he registered a personal best of 15.23m to win the gold medal at his first International Paralympic Committee World Athletics Championships in France. After his success at the 2013 World Championships, in which he won his country's only medal of the tournament, Ziyad was recognized as the National Paralympian Sportsman of the Year at the Anugerah Sukan Negara.Rio Summer Paralympic
At the 2016 Paralympic Games, he represented Malaysia again and won the gold medal in the shot put event and setting a new world record.At the event held in the evening at the London Stadium, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Muhammad Ziyad threw a distance of 17.29m to rewrite his own previous world record of 16.84m set at last year’s Rio Paralympic Games in Brazil.Honours
Honours of Malaysia
