It’s a big year for our national paralympic hero, Abdul Latif Romly.
He has a world championship coming up in July, and then the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games in August.
However, the long-jump parathlete has it all planned out and he is determined to take it one at a time.
First of all, the Paralympian needs to cross the 7.52 m mark to qualify for the 2017 SEA Games.
If he succeeds, Abdul Latif will join his fellow able-bodied athlete, Luqman Hakim Ramlan, who has already qualified for the 2017 SEA Games by clearing 7.62 m at the National Closed Athletics Championships held in Lumut Stadium over the weekend.
It’s not an impossible feat for the Paralympic medalist. In fact, Abdul Latif’s best ever record was 7.60 m which he notched at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Abdul Latif’s 7.60 m jump was also a new world record, as he secured a gold medal at the T20 (intellectual disability) category at the Rio Paralympics.
Earlier in February, he cleared 7.40 m after competing at the Perak All Comers Athletics Championships in Ipoh. He bagged a gold medal at the same event.
But although the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games is a priority for Abdul Latif, he wants to first focus all his attention and energy on the upcoming World Para Athletics Championships that will be held in London between 14 and 23 July.
Abdul Latif wants to retain his gold medal and his record of 7.35 m which he accomplished at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships in Doha.
“I want to defend my gold medal at the world championship first. And then I will start prepping for the SEA Games.” HMetro quoted him as saying.
“I’ll leave it all to my coach, Syahrul Amri. He knows what needs to be done, and I leave it to him to decide.” the Paralympian said.
Good luck, Abdul Latif, go make waves in London and come back a world champion!
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