Tokyo Paralympics: Ahmad Hindi wins Jordan’s fourth Games gold with world record throw

Mena podium sweep in shot put F34 category on Saturday

Ahmad Hindi of Team Jordan celebrates winning the gold medal and breaking the world record in the men's shot put F34 final at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Getty

Ahmad Hindi won Jordan’s fourth Paralympic gold medal, this time in the men’s shot put F34 category, completing an outstanding gold medal haul for the country.

Hindi was the only shot putter to push beyond 12 metres, his world record throw beating Azeddine Nouiri of Morocco into second and Qatari Abdulrahman Fiqi into third to complete a Mena medal sweep on Saturday.

After realising he had thrown a world record of 12.25m, breaking his own standard set in Dubai in 2019, Hindi looked to the sky and roared.

It was a convincing win for the 25-year-old with each of his subsequent throws well ahead of the rest of the field.

Hindi’s gold capped off an impressive haul for the Jordanian Paralympic team. The shot put gold came after three top finishes in powerlifting from Jamil El Shebli, Abdelkareem Khattab and Omar Qarada.

As a result, Jordan are 35th in the medals table, and fifth in the region.

Up until this Games, Jordan had only won a single Paralympic gold medal, which was in table tennis in Sydney 2000.

Elsewhere, it was a bountiful day for Mena athletes on the penultimate day of Tokyo Games.

Morocco’s Zakariae Derhem edged out Algerian Kamel Kardjena in the final of the F33 shot put. Derhem beat the double paralympic champion by three centimetres to win gold. Tunisia’s Nourhein Belhaj Salem picked up silver in the women’s shot put F40 final.

It was another regional one-two finish in the men’s 800m T34 final. Walid Ktila of Tunisia just pipped Emirati Mohamed Al Hammadi in the final straight, winning by 0.09 seconds to top the podium.

In the afternoon session, Iranian Sadegh Beit Sayah took silver ahead of Iraq’s Wildan Nukhailawi who claimed bronze in the men’s standing javelin F41 class.

Meanwhile, Morocco made history winning their first-ever medal in the 5-a-side football, beating China 4-0 in the bronze medal match.