AirAsia to give free flights to Paralympics gold medallist
THE STAR
Paralympic gold medal winner Abdul Latif Romly.
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PETALING JAYA: Paralympic gold medal winner Abdul Latif Romly will receive free AirAsia flights for the rest of his life, said the airline's chief executive officer Tan Sri Tony Fernandes.
"Third gold. And a world record. Well done, Abdul Latif You have free flights for life," said Fernandes in a tweet on his official account - @tonyfernandes - on Monday morning.
The 19-year old from Kangar, Perlis, broke the long jump T20 (learning disability) category record with a 7.60m jump in his fifth attempt at the Olympic Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.
Abdul Latif had previously set a world record of 7.35m at the IPC World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar, last year.
The previous Paralympic record of 7.25m was held by Jose Antonio Exposito Pineiro from Spain, which was set at the London Paralympic Games in 2012.
Aside from Abdul Latif, two other Malaysians scored gold medals at the Rio Paralympics.
Mohamad Ridzuan Mohamad Puzi won the first gold medal for Malaysia in the men's 100m T36 (cerebral palsy category) dash.
He clocked 12.07 seconds to erase the old Paralympics record of 12.25s set by Roman Pavlyk from Ukraine at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
The second gold was delivered by Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli with a new world record in the men's shot put F20 (learning disability) event.
He hurled the iron ball 16.84m in his fifth attempt, erasing the old world record of 16.29m set by Todd Hodgetts of Australia at the London Paralympics in 2012.
AirAsia was giving free flights for life to all Asean athletes who won gold medals in the recently-concluded Rio Olympics 2016 "for making us dream and believe".
Fernandes announced on Aug 24 that gold medallists would be entitled to free flights for life.
"What an Olympics this was for Asean. AirAsia, which has its roots in Asean, wants to reward those who gave us so much joy," said Fernandes on his Facebook page.
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