#Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli stripped of gold medal for being late

Tardiness won’t be tolerated in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.

Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli of Malaysia was stripped of his gold medal at the Summer Games after he won the men’s shot put F20 on Tuesday — because he had arrived three minutes late to the competition.

Zolkefli competed in the F20 classification for intellectual impairment.

The 31-year-old Paralympian, along with two other competitors, were allowed to compete because “they may have had a logical reason for being late,” Craig Spence, an International Paralympic Committee (IPC) spokesman told CNN. Spence added that the IPC would “look at the facts of the matter afterward.”

Though, a referee disqualified Zolkefli from the event and determined there was “no justifiable reason for the athletes’ failure” to arrive to the completion on time, according to a statement from track and field governing body World Para Athletics.

Appeals against the decision have been rejected, according to the World Para Athletics.

“The organization said the appeals by the three were thrown out based on the ‘Failure to Report to the Call Room’ rule. It requires athletes to be present in the call room before their event at the time published on the schedule. If they are not present at the required time, they will be listed as DNS (did not start),” the statement read.  

“The three were able to compete under protest per rule. The evidence was later reviewed and they were found to have not reported on time, per World Para Athletics.”

The controversy led to the hashtag “#Ziyad” trending on social media. Critics took aim at Ukrainian athlete Maksym Koval, who initially won silver in the shot put F20 competition, but was later awarded gold after Zolkefli’s disqualification.

IPC spokesman Spence described the comments at Koval as “very abusive.”

“Ridiculous in my view. I mean, yes you can be unhappy with the decision but what I now see is comments on all our social media posts which have nothing to do with the men’s shot put F20 event,” Spence said.

“I’m sorry. Rules are rules. The decision was taken. It wasn’t the Ukrainians’ fault that the Malaysian was late.”

Malaysia’s Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Faizul Azumu — who was “disappointed” by the verdict — said the country’s National Sports Council will investigate the disqualification.

“The athletes have waited for five years but their hopes and spirits were destroyed by a delay of not even five minutes … this is something which is very sad,” he told a local news outlet, via BBC News.

Koval’s Ukrainian teammate Oleksandr Yarovyi won silver, while Greece’s Efstratios Nikolaidis took home bronze.

Zolkefli won the Malaysia’s first Paralympic gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympic games.