Govt to bring Ziyad's case to Court of Arbitration for Sport if appeal fails, says minister

KUALA LUMPUR: Putrajaya will not hesitate to bring national Paralympian Mohd Ziyad Zolkepli's case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) if they failed to make their case with the International Paralympic Committee and the World Para Athletics (WPA).

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu (pic) said the government viewed the matter seriously and an internal investigating committee led by former public service director-general Tan Sri Borhan Dolah was formed to conduct thorough investigations over the incident.

He said the findings of the internal investigating committee will be scrutinised by the Youth and Sports Ministry and a plan on what to do next would be drawn up with the Malaysia Para-Athletics Association Malaysia (MPAA) and the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM).

"The ministry is considering the possibility of bringing up this issue to the CAS if we fail to convince the IPC and WPA," he said during his winding-up speech at the Royal Address in Parliament on Thursday (Sept 23).

Ahmad Faizal also said SOPs for athletes are currently being improved by the government in order to ensure this incident does not happen again.

Malaysia is in the process of filing a second appeal of Ziyad was classified as Did Not Start (DNS) for reporting late to the call room.

The 2016 Rio champ had broken his own world record three times during the event, but a protest was lodged by Ukraine with the technical committee who then disqualified Mohd Ziyad and two others for supposedly turning up late in the call area.

RSN Rayer (PH-Jelutong) then interjected and asked if Mohd Ziyad will be rewarded over his stint in Tokyo, Japan.

Ahmad Faizal said the government has present policies to provide incentives to national athletes, but they never thought an incident like Mohd Ziyad's would ever happen.

"The whole world saw Mohd Ziyad break the world record and I am of the opinion that his efforts should be incentivised.

"We will always support him by bringing Mohd Ziyad's case to the highest level of justice. Aside from that, the ministry will ensure that his achievements in Tokyo will be given the right incentive."

On a separate issue, Ahmad Faizal said that the ministry has proposed to the National Security Council (NSC) to allow spectators into stadiums to watch sporting events.

Ahmad Faizal said that back when the movement control order (MCO) was in place, the government had allowed limited spectators into stadiums but this had to be rescinded following an increase in Covid-19 cases among the supporters.

“Now that we are in the recovery phase, the Youth and Sports Ministry has proposed to the NSC and is working with the Health Ministry to enable this activity to be permitted again, subject to tight standard operating procedures (SOP).

“So is the case with outdoor sports, which has been permitted, so I hope that the public would adhere to the SOP,” he said.