Brunei's Shari Hj Juma'at found
himself in eighth position after
throwing a distance of 26.17m
at the men's javelin throw
F54/55/56 final at the London
Paralympics.Picture: BT file

Shari Hj Juma'at finished eighth during yesterday's men's javelin throw F54/55/56 final at the London Paralympics, a disappointing result considering the country's top para-athlete was gunning for gold.

His best throw in six attempts at the Olympic Stadium was 26.17m, a distance that the No 1 ranked para-athlete in the world in the Men's Javelin F55 field wheelchair event will no doubt be unhappy about since it is well below his personal best of 29.83m.

The top-three para-athletes in the F54 class wrapped up the podium places yesterday, with Mexico's World No 2 Luis Albert Zepeda Felix taking the top spot with 28.07m.

Russia's World No 1 Alexey Kuznetsov claimed silver with 27.87m and Greece's World No. 3 Manolis Stefanoudakis finished with bronze on 27.37m.

The London Paralympics website explains that classes 51 to 58 cover wheelchair racers or field athletes who throw from a seated position.

In each class, the first digit indicates the nature of an athlete's impairment, and the second indicates the amount of functional ability the athlete has.

The lower the second number, the greater the impact of the impairment on the athlete competing in that event.

Brunei, along with 15 other countries, is making its debut at the Paralympics this year with Shari the Sultanate's only entry in London.

The 45-year-old Shari has been representing the Sultanate since 1991 and set a new ASEAN Para Games record when he threw a winning 26.22m during last year's edition in Solo, Indonesia.

He set his personal best during April's 1st Malaysia Open Para Athletics Championship 2012.

Courtesy from Brunei Times