National Track Cyclist Azizul To Focus On His Medal-Winning Keirin Event After Sprint Loss
Datuk Azizulhasni Awang is one of Malaysia's top contenders for gold at the Paris Olympics, having won a silver and bronze in the past two games.
By Yap Wan Xiang — 08 Aug 2024, 12:14 PM
National track cyclist Datuk Azizulhasni Awang has shifted his focus to his two-time Olympic medal-winning event, the men's keirin, after failing in the sprint event at the Paris Olympics
According to the New Straits Times, Azizulhasni did not qualify for the quarter-finals in the sprint event after finishing third in the 1/8 repechage round at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome today, 8 August.
Only the winner of each repechage round advances to the quarter-finals.
Azizulhasni, who earned the moniker 'Pocket Rocketman' for his small stature and as Malaysia's only Olympic medal-winning cyclist, lost to Poland's Mateusz Rudyk by trailing 0.190 seconds behind.
Earlier, Azizulhasni lost to Netherlands' Jeffrey Hoogland trailing by 0.037 seconds in heat 6 of the 1/8 finals before being placed in the repechage round.
Despite being eliminated from the sprint event, Azizulhasni set a new national record with a time of 9.402 seconds, finishing 10th in the qualifying round. This surpassed the previous record of 9.523 seconds, which he set at the Asian Track Cycling Championships in Nilai last year.
The five-time Olympian has now set his focus on the men's keirin event, where he won bronze at Rio 2016 and silver at Tokyo 2020
Speaking to Bernama after the sprint race, Azizulhasni expressed overall satisfaction with the start of his campaign, having achieved the desired time in the qualifying round.
"The earlier plan was to go round by round, so I am happy to beat Germany's Luca Spiegel and Great Britain's Hamish Turnbull in the 1/32 and 1/16, [respectively].
"Then, the plan was to beat Hoogland, but unfortunately, I ended up losing to him. Technically and tactically, it was a perfect race, but I just didn't have enough speed, he was a lot quicker using a bigger gear.
"Then for the repechage, [coach] John Beasley [told me to] save the energy for keirin. If I go through the repechage, I need to face the fastest rider Harrie Lavreysen [of the Netherlands in the quarter-finals], and I'm going to waste energy by prolonging the race, so we wanted to save energy for the next two days and focus on the keirin," he said.
In the same sprint event, another national rider, Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom, also faced a tough challenge and lost in the 1/32 finals.
Both Azizulhasni and Muhammad Shah will compete in their main event, keirin, starting this Saturday, 10 August.
