Sports

Sunday March 5, 2006

Cycling: More joy for Josiah

BY LIM TEIK HUAT

PETALING JAYA: Track cyclist Josiah Ng continued to keep the Malaysian flag flying high when he earned his best-ever finish for the season by taking fourth place in the individual sprint event in the final leg of the Track World Cup in Sydney yesterday.

NO LOVE LOST: Gregory Bauge (right) of France manoeuvres in front of compatriot Arnaud Tournant during the semi-finals of the sprint event yesterday. Bauge went on to win the title. – AFPpic
Josiah, all charged up after being crowned the overall World Cup champion in keirin the previous day, did brilliantly in the sprint by knocking out top seed Lukaz Kwiatkowski of Poland to earn a place in the last four.

Josiah lost the first race in the quarter-finals to Kwiatkowski but bounced back to win the second race before clinching victory in the sudden-death race.

In the semi-finals, the 26-year-old Josiah lost both races to another Pole, Damian Zielinski.

Josiah also failed in his bid for the bronze medal after losing to French legend Arnaud Tournant in the sudden death race.

Gregory Bauge of France won both races in the final against Zielinski to take the gold medal.

Josiah was delighted with his fourth placing especially since the event attracted a top class field of world and Olympic medallists.

The strong showing also make up for his disappointment in the event since the start of the World Cup campaign last November.

Josiah had narrowly missed out on the top 16 places on three occasions – Moscow, Manchester and Los Angeles.

“I never made it past the qualifying rounds. I finished 17th in all the previous races. Each time, it has been just by a margin of a tenth of a second. So, this is something worth celebrating tonight,” said Josiah in a telephone interview from Sydney.

There were more cheers from the other Commonwealth Games riders. Amiruddin Jamaluddin set a new national record when he clocked 4:51.763 for 16th place in the individual pursuit.

Amiruddin's time was a personal best and improved on the previous national record of 4:55.130 which was set by Lee Robert back in 2001.

Uracca Leow also dipped under the four-minute barrier for the second time in a month in the women's individual pursuit yesterday.

She clocked 3:59.585 to finish 15th in the qualifying event.

The team pursuit quartet of Amiruddin, Mohd Sayuti Zahit, Mohd Fauzan Lufti and Thum Weng Kin finished seventh yesterday on 4:27.713.

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