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Friday March 20, 2009

Malaysian cyclists to train alongside British team

By LIM TEIK HUAT

PETALING JAYA: The national track cycling trio of Azizul Hasni Awang, Josiah Ng and Rizal Tisin could not have found a better way to get their competitive juices flowing when action begins in the World Championships in Prusz­kow next Wednesday.

They have been drawn to ride alongside the all-conquering British team for the five days of official training sessions starting today. Also placed in the same group are riders from Italy, Kazakhstan, Denmark and Belgium.

While it could just be a coincidence, the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) deputy president, Datuk Naim Mohamad, hoped that being placed alongside the British riders will surely fire the Malaysians for the challenges ahead.

Britain dominated the track cycling competition in the Beijing Olympics last year, bagging six gold medals.

“Britain swept all the sprint titles at stake (team, keirin and 200m). They do not have their triple champion, Chris Hoy, but they have Jason Kenny and Jamie Staff, who were part of the winning team sprint combination,” said Naim.

“Kenny is the 200m sprint silver medallist and he will be the favourite in the world championships. This will be good motivation for our cyclists as they get used to the track conditions before competitions begin.”

The Malaysian trio have been in Pruszkow since Monday and Naim said that they had plenty of time to get used to the cold conditions.

“It is snowing at the moment. Since it is a cold track, it looks like we will not be seeing fast times but everyone has to go through the same experience,” he said.

Despite this, Naim is confident that the riders will achieve something this time.

“We have made significant progress over the last two years and our riders are going in as realistic medal contenders,” he said.

“Azizul starts as the top ranked rider in keirin and we hope he can fight his way to a medal. Rizal has a new bike and I was told that he is doing very well in training.”

Such is Rizal’s form that he may also compete in the keirin apart from the team sprint and 1km time trial.

“It’s up to coach John Beasley to decide whether he or Josiah will start in the keirin. His main focus is on the 1km time trial,” said Naim.

It is not a new discipline for Rizal as he was racing in keirin when he first went into the national elite squad.

He ended a 19-year-old drought for Ma­laysia by winning the keirin gold in Asian Championships in 2006 but he switched to the 1km time trial after finishing empty-handed in the Doha Asian Games in the same year.

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