Sports

Wednesday February 22, 2012

Josiah will be back on the saddle for world meet after injury scare

By LIM TEIK HUAT


PETALING JAYA: It will be a relief to the Malaysian camp that reigning Asian keirin champion Josiah Ng will not miss the World Championships in Melbourne from April 4-8.

Josiah was involved in a crash with Ireland’s Eoin Mullen and the duo did not finish their repechage heat, allowing Britain’s Matthew Crampton to cruise to victory and a place in the second round of the keirin.

The crash brought back memories of Azizulhasni Awang’s horrific accident – in Manchester a year ago – which resulted in a serious calf injury.

Luckily, Josiah’s injury is not as serious, said track team manager Datuk Naim Mohamad.

“His left knuckles and elbow are swollen because he hit the surface hard. He scraped the skin off his left bump but, otherwise, there are no serious injuries,” he said.

“Josiah should be okay for the world meet.”

That is good news for coach John Beasley, who will be looking to Josiah and Azizul to keep the Malaysian flag flying.

Josiah, the Olympic finalist in Athens in 2004, enjoyed a well-deserved win on home soil by leading Azizul to a glorious 1-2 finish at the Asian Cycling Championships in Cheras.

It was Josiah’s first Asian championships success and marked the third time the duo earned a 1-2 finish in a major competition.

Josiah had finished second behind Azizul in the same discipline at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi but was promoted to the gold medal after the latter was disqualified for blocking an opponent.

However, the younger Azizul stormed back in style to finish ahead of Josiah to clinch the Asian Games keirin title in Guangzhou the following month, ending a 40-year-old gold medal drought in cycling.

Each country is limited to one rider in the sprint and keirin at the London Olympics this time, instead of two at the previous Games in Beijing.

In the latest country rankings for keirin, Malaysia have jumped to fourth behind France, Australia and Britain.

Malaysia are the top-ranked Asian country in keirin and only the top two nation from the continent will qualify for the Olympics.

The world meet is the final opportunity to pick up ranking points for the Olympics and the results will likely indicate who stands the better chance to ride for the country.

Beasley said it is a big problem for him “but a nice one for the country to have to choose between the two”.

“There are certainly no favouritism and whoever is picked for the keirin will, in my view, be able to give the country the best opportunity to fight for the Olympic gold.”

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