YOUNG Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri (pic) came to the Paris Olympics for the experience. She will be going home with a a new national record.
Izzah, who turns 21 next month, blazed her way to a new national record in the women’s sprint event and beat the odds to make it to the knockout stage at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome in Paris yesterday.
The 20-year-old zipped to a superb 10.709s in her 200m flying lap around the fast track to demolish her own national record of 10.903s set at the Asian Track Cycling Championships in Nilai last year.
Izzah’s time put her 21st overall out of 30 cyclists, earning her a place in the elimination rounds. A total of 24 cyclists advanced to the knockout stage.
Izzah, however, met her match after she was beaten by Britain’s rising star Sophie Capewell in the 1/32 round of the knockout stage.
In the repechage, she finished second behind Canadian Lauriane Genest and ahead of Japan’s Ohta Riyu. Only the winner of the repechage progressed.
The Sungai Petani-born cyclist was eliminated in the first round of the keirin event earlier in the week but she has certainly showed her mettle, doing better than expected.
Track coach John Beasley only targeted her to qualify for the 2028 Olympics but the small-sized cyclist proved the Australian wrong by making it on merit for Paris Olympics.
She became only the second Malaysian woman to do so after Fatehah Mustapa who had competed in keirin in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and in sprint in Tokyo three years ago.
Izzah is also the reigning Asian champion in keirin and 500m time trial.
Lea Friedrich of Germany set the fastest time in the qualification round yesterday as the world record was broken a breathtaking four times. Capewell set 10.132s, Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand) then rode 10.108s and Emma Finucane (Britain) went even faster in 10.067s. Friedrich, however, proved to be fastest and took the new world record to 10.029s.
Canada’s Kelsey Mitchell, who held the previous world record of 10.154s, was only 10th fastest yesterday in 10.285s.
