Paralympic coaches to get bigger rewards from now on

SEPANG: There will be bigger rewards from now on for the Olympic and Paralympic coaches.

The coaches will now get 30% of the amount given to medallists under the National Sports Council (NSC) incentive scheme – up from the previous 20%.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin made the announcement at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) after the arrival of the Malaysian Rio 2016 Paralympic contingent.

Under the scheme, gold medalwinning athletes get RM1mil while a silver is worth RM300,000 and a bronze RM200,000.

The athletes also receive a monthly allowance of RM5,000 for life for gold, RM3,000 for silver and RM2,000 for bronze. Malaysia’s contingent brought back three gold medals and a bronze.

Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi, 29, won the gold in the T36 100m sprint (cerebral palsy), clocking 12.07s. Shot putter Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli, 26, broke the world record twice in the shot putt F20 event (learning disabilities).

His fifth throw hit a distance of 16.84m, surpassing his earlier world record of 16.40m.

Long jumper Abdul Latif Romly, 19, broke the world record three times in the men’s T20 (learning disabilities) long jump final, clearing 7.60m in his final jump.

Siti Noor Radiah Ismail bagged a bronze medal in the women’s T20 long jump (intellectual disability) event with a 5.20m leap, becoming the first Malaysian female Paralympic medal winner.

The three coaches in charge of the medallists are R. Jaganathan, Mohd Faizol Harun and Mohd Syahrul Amri Suhaimi.

Jaganathan coached sprinter Mohd Ridzuan and Faizol was in charge of Ziyad, while Syahrul guided both Mohd Latif and Siti Noor Radiah.