AZIZULHASNI Awang’s challenge in the men’s sprint event is over but track coach John Beasley is not fretting.
The Australian feels both his riders – Azizul and Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom – have ticked all the boxes with their performances as they gear up for the all-important keirin event starting tomorrow.
Azizul lost in the repechage of the knockout stage, coming in third behind Mikhail Yakovlev of Israel and Rudyk Mateusz of Poland at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Thursday.
The Polish rider joined Japan’s Yuta Obara, who had won the other repechage heat, in the last eight.
Japan will be the only Asian nation to be represented in the quarter-finals with Ota Kaiya earning a direct spot along with Holland’s Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland, Britain’s Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin; and Australian Matthew Richardson.
Azizul had to race in the repechage after he lost to Hoogland, the silver medallist behind Lavreysen in the sprint event in Tokyo three years ago.
Shah Firdaus was eliminated in the first round repechage.
Azizul and Shah Firdaus had set personal bests in their sprint qualifying runs earlier.
“We went in with the target of going faster than we have done before and we were also aiming for a top-10 placing, which we both achieved.
“We ticked (the boxes for) a lot of goals today.
“This is the Olympics and we expect everybody to be doing fast times as the track here in Paris is very steep and is an extra metre wider than most tracks around the world, which allows for greater acceleration for bigger riders.”
“Our focus has never been on the sprint, the sprint was always going to be a warm up event for the keirin where we set some markers to achieve.
“We know we have the speed to win the keirin,” added Beasley.
Azizul, at 36, clocked a blistering 9.402s to place 10th overall from 30 riders in the individual sprint qualifying round.
The time bettered his own national record of 9.523s, which he had set en route to gold at the Asian Championships in Nilai last year.
