More Paralympic Athletes To Qualify For Tokyo 2020 - Paralympic Council of Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR, June 9 (Bernama) -- The Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) expects more athletes to join the 13 national athletes who have confirmed their participation in the Tokyo Paralympic Games scheduled to take place from Aug 24 to Sept 5. PCM president Megat D. Shahriman Zaharudin said 10 national paralympic athletes involving three different sports were currently on a waiting list, and the results would only be known within three weeks. According to him, four of the 10 athletes were from athletics, while another four were from cycling and two from powerlifting. "We hope they can qualify for Tokyo, and we also have nine more athletes from archery, badminton, shooting, swimming and table tennis for the 'bipartite' (Bipartite Commission Invitation) slots," he told Bernama, today. Bipartite Commission Invitation slots are awarded to individual athletes and not to the respective national Paralympic councils, while the decision to award it by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) cannot be challenged or appealed. At the same time, Megat D. Shahriman who is also the head of the national contingent to the Tokyo Paralympic Games expressed pride in the success of the three national athletes who confirmed their slots for Tokyo on merit today. The three athletes are para-badminton ace Cheah Like Hou and his teammate Didin Taresoh as well as wheelchair tennis athlete Abu Samah Borhan. "Congratulations to all the athletes who qualified on merit, PCM is very proud, and this is good news for the country. We are all ready to go to Tokyo and achieve our goals there," he said. Previously, 10 para-athletes from five sports had qualified for the Tokyo Paralympic Games, namely Muhd Nursaiful Zulfikri and Brenda Anelia in swimming; S. Suresh and Wiro Julin (archery); Mohd Ziyad Zolkefli, Wong Kar Gee, Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi and Abdul Latif Romli (athletics); Chew Wei Lun (boccia) and Bonnie Bunyau Gustin (powerlifting). -- BERNAMA