[UPDATE, 8.23am] According to a tweet by @BuletinTV3, Zayid and Team Malaysia's appeal to have the disqualification overturned has been rejected.

Original story:

When it comes to sports, Malaysians from all walks of life would come together to support our athletes.

And when someone messes with one of ours, they mess with all of us.

Short-lived joy

Malaysian Paralympian Ziyad Zolkepli's record-breaking throw in the men’s shot putt F20 competition was sensationally and cruelly snatched away due to a technicality issue.

According to The Star, the 31-year-old managed a stunning effort of 17.94m, securing the gold medal for him and the country.

In fact, Ziyad broke the world record twice enroute to winning the event.

To make his win more impressive, Ziyad's world record bests even the new national record for able-bodied athletes - a national record of 17.54m held by Adi Aliffudin Hussin since 2011.

World record throw.
However, Ziyad's joy was shortlived as officials disqualified the athlete and two others for entering the roll call area late following a protest launched by the Ukraine team.

The roll call area is where the athletes officially begin their competition as they are considered to be in "competition" mode once they are in the area. The athletes will then be escorted by technical officials at all times until they complete their event.

According to the officials, Ziyad was two minutes late to report to the roll call area as he was talking to his mom on the phone.

Ziyad's disqualification means that Ukraine's Koval Maksym and Oleksandr Yarovyi were awarded gold and silver respectively, while Efstratios Nikolaidis of Greece was promoted to bronze.

Malaysians outraged

The decision to disqualify Ziyad has enraged Malaysians, with many of them taking to their social media accounts to voice their displeasure.

Keywords such as 'Ziyad', 'Tokyo Paralympics' and 'unprofessional' were still trending on Twitter hours after the decision was made.

Many opined that Ziyad should've been stopped from competing in the first place if he was found to have violated a rule, not robbing him of the win after the event was over.

Appeal ongoing

According to Free Malaysia Today, the Malaysian contigent will not be accepting the ruling without a fight.

Newly sworn-in youth and sports minister Ahmad Faizal Azumu said Malaysian officials, as well as those from Australia and Ecuador, have submitted counter-protests to the organisers.

Faizal said in a tweet later that the counter-protests will be raised at the chef de mission meeting on Wednesday (1 September) morning.

Let's hope the officials reverse the call and give Ziyad back his gold medal. He totally deserved the win.