By Amiril Muttaqien Meketar
PARIS, Sept 2 (Bernama) -- The first jump by national para athlete Jonathan Wong Kar Gee provided a ray of hope for the Malaysian athletics contingent that he would be able to secure at least a bronze in the men's T12 long jump (visually impaired) event at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games here today.
However, Argentine Fernando Vazquez's final jump of 6.88 metres shattered his hopes of taking home a medal, surpassing the 6.85m mark of Kar Gee's first attempt on the fourth day of athletics competition at the Stade de France.
The 33-year-old repeated his jump of 6.85m on his sixth and final attempt but the mark was only good to finish fourth overall out of six competitors as the gold medal went to Azerbaijan's Said Najafzade, who jumped 7.27m, followed by Uzbekistan's Donior Saliev (7.16m) for silver.
Today's result saw Kar Gee improve his previous Paralympics performance after finishing sixth in the T13 (visually impaired) long jump event with a distance of 5.93m during his debut at the Tokyo 2020 edition.
The distance cleared today was however, way off compared to his personal best of 7.22m which was set at the 2018 China Open.
“My speed was not enough for a perfect take off and I was not in my best condition today, While training I had good speed but today, I cannot figure out why my speed dropped.
“Certainly disappointed not to get bronze. Some say number four is the worst placing but for me it will fuel me to work even harder,” he said after the competition, here today.
Kar Gee, winner of a silver medal at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships in United Arab Emirates, hopes to return stronger at the 2026 Asian Para Games in Japan.
Though Kar Gee is now 33, he hinted that Paris 2024 would not be his final fling and that he would still be fighting for a spot in the 2028 Paralympics in Los Angeles.
“I am still capable of competing (2028 Paralympics). If can perform, why not, go ahead,” he said.
The athlete from Kota Kinabalu suffered from Stargardt (an eye disease that causes vision loss in children and young adults. It is an inherited disease, meaning it is passed on to children from their parents) since birth before his vision started fading since the age of eight.
Yesterday, Malaysia secured their maiden medal in athletics after his teammate Eddy Bernard clinched a bronze in the men's 100m T44 (physically impaired) event with a time of 11.58s which was also a new Asian record.
-- BERNAMA
