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Tuesday October 6, 2009

Azizul wins the 500m scratch and comes out second in the keirin

By LIM TEIK HUAT

PETALING JAYA: National cyclist Azizul Hasni Awang (pic) completed his impressive weekend at the Gran Caracol de Pista track meet with another win in the 500m scratch and a second place in keirin in Colombia on Sunday.

Azizul came out tops in the scratch race ahead of Colombian Fabian Puerta while compatriot Josiah Ng took the bronze.

And in his signature keirin race, Azizul settled for the silver behind American national team rider James Watkins. Colombian Leornado Navez took bronze with Tomas Babek of Czech Republic, former world champion Teun Mulder of Holland and Hernan Sanchez of Colombia completing the six spots in the final.

Azizul had defeated current world champion Gregory Bauge of France to win the 200m sprint final on Saturday and his efforts in Medellin earned him the best overall male sprinter award.

And the 21-year-old’s sparkling form in his first outing in Latin America has convinced coaching director John Beasley to field him in three of the four legs of the Track World Cup series.

The Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) deputy president, Datuk Naim Mohamad, said that Azizul was originally slated to compete in two legs – the season opening round in Manchester (Oct 30-Nov 1) and in Melbourne (Nov 19-21).

“I just received an e-mail from the coach and he is happy with Azizul’s form. Azizul will now also compete in he round in Beijing (Jan 22-24) and then get ready for the world championships in Denmark in March,” he said.

“He will be the only Malaysian rider taking part in three rounds of the World Cup. He should be racing in the keirin and 200m sprint. We will decide later on his participation in the team sprint. Another rider will get to go for the third leg of World Cup in Cali (Dec 10-12).”

Malaysia will field a continental team comprising elite national riders and another trade team made up of cyclists from the back-squad in the World Cup.

“This way, we have the option to give the back-up riders the chance to race in the World Cup and hopefully, they will help Malaysia secure more quota spots for the world championships,” said Naim.

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