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Monday April 13, 2009

Cyclist Hafiz weathers extreme highs and lows in national meet

By LIM TEIK HUAT

KUALA LUMPUR: Cyclist Hafiz Sufian went through a roller-coaster of emotions in the rain-interrupted national track championships at the Cheras Velodrome here yesterday.

The 23-year-old was on a high in the morning session after beating the Australia-based elite cyclists Mohd Edrus Yunos and Junaidi Nasir to win the sprint title in his first competitive outing since getting back into the national team late last year.

But it was Hafiz who ended up a frustrated cyclist later when he was prevented from getting a chance to secure a hat-trick of titles in the 1km time trial and keirin.

An afternoon downpour hit the outdoor concrete track just as Hafiz was getting ready to go out to lap the track in the 1km time trial, an event in which he held the national record until the emergence of Azizul Hasni Awang and Rizal Tisin.

Hafiz was one of the five remaining riders from the list of 15 starters yet to go out and Harnizam Basri of Kuala Lumpur was later declared the winner with a time of 1:11.110.

“I had fixed the aerobar on my bike and was waiting for my name to be called when it started drizzling. It got heavy and they decided to call it off,” said Hafiz, who had a personal best of 1:06.011 achieved at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games before he quit towards the end of the same year.

“It was frustrating ... I wanted to see what I was capable of doing in a competition. Winning the sprint gold is a bonus for me as the 1km time trial was my main focus.”

However, Hafiz certainly showed what he was capable of in the sprint by out-pacing the more fancied Edrus and Junaidi, who are based in Melbourne together with Azizul, Rizal and Josiah Ng.

Hafiz defeated Junaidi 2-0 in the semi-finals and went on to edge Beijing Olympian Edrus by a similar margin for the gold medal.

Hafiz qualified for the top six keirin final after winning his heat on Saturday. But heavy rain saw the cancellation of the final, which was the last scheduled event in the programme yesterday.

“I am disappointed not to get to race but I think everyone is glad this has ended. I did not have enough sleep because of the qualifying rounds for the sprint and the heats for the keirin ended very late on Saturday,” he said.

“It was raining the whole day and the events dragged on until very late and we had to come back early this morning to finish the sprint.”

Hafiz is seen as the second best rider in the 1km time trial after Rizal.

There was no such problems for Fatehah Mustafa to live up to her billing as the top female track cyclist in the country.

Fatehah took the sprint gold medal with a comfortable 2-0 win over Nor Azian Alias in the morning and went on to sweep the 500m time trial gold in 37.231.

It was the third gold medal in the national meet for the 20-year-old from Terengganu, who also won the 5km scratch on Friday.

Two-time SEA Games triathlon champion Kimbeley Yap came close to bagging a medal in her first competition in track cycling when she lost to Masziyaton Mohd Radzi in the race for the bronze in the women’s 3km individual pursuit on Saturday.

The event was won by Uracca Leow, who posted a time of 4:20.700.

RESULTS

MEN (19 and above)

1km time trial: 1. Harnizam Basri (NSC-Kul) 1:11.110, 2. Ahmad Fakhrullah Alias (Pah) 1:12.463, 3. Mohd Firdaus Izwan Jaafar (back-up-Kul) 1:14.675.

Sprint: 1. Hafiz Sufian (NSC), 2. Mohd Edrus Yunos (Prk), 3. Junaidi Nasir (NSC).

4km team pursuit: 1. NSC Elite (Mohd Saufi Mat Senan, Mohd Hariff Salleh, Mohd Zamani Mustaruddin, Mohd Syahrul Afiza Fauzan) 4:48.076, 2. MNCF Continental (Muhd Akmal Amrun, Amir Mustafa Rosli, Mohd Fadhil Anuar, Thum Weng Kin) 4:48.271, 3. National back-up (Yusrizal Yusof, Ahmad Syakir Ismail, Mohd Faiz Sarifuddin, Nik Azwan Nik Dzulkifli) 5:01.894. 4km individual pursuit: 1. Mohd Adiq Hussainie Othman (back-up-Ter) 5:09.589, 2. Mohd Zamani Mustaruddin (NSC-Prk) 5:09.661, 3. Muhd Akmal Amrun (Sel) 5:12.221.

BOYS (Under-18)

1km time trial: 1. Julian Ong (Sab) 1:16.356, 2. Mohd Arfy Qhairant Amran (Mal) 1:16.707, 3. Mohd Farhan Amri Zaid (Ked) 1:16.925.

Sprint: 1. Mohd Farhan Amri Zaid (Ked), 2. Mohd Hazmir Azeman (Ked), 3. Mohd Arfy Qhairant Amran (Mal).

3km individual pursuit: 1. Nur Amirul Fakhruddin Marzuki (Ter) 4:02.154, 2. Mohd Zulhilmie Afif (back-up-Ter) 4:02.431, 3. Mohd Khairul Azizi (Ter) 4:02.456.

WOMEN (19 and above)

500m time trial: 1. Fatehah Mustafa (NSC) 37.231, 2. Nurul Ahmar Badeuzzaman (back-up-Sel) 40.614, 3. Nor Azian Alias (Joh) 40.641.

Sprint: 1. Fatehah Mustafa (NSC), 2. Nor Azian Alias (Joh), 3. Nurul Ahmar Badeuzzaman (backup- Sel).

3km individual pursuit: 1. Uracca Leow (Sel) 4:20.700, 2. Nurul Ahmad Badeuzzaman (backup- Sel) 4:32.615, 3. Masziyaton Mohd Radzi (Ked) 4:38.673.

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