PETALING JAYA: There was no shame in defeat for cyclist Azizul Hasni Awang in settling for a silver medal at the World Track Championships in Pruszskow yesterday.
The pint-sized 21-year-old from Terengganu had entered a territory where no Malaysian has encroached before after beating Australia’s top sprinter Shane Perkins 2-0 in the men’s sprint semi-finals to assure himself of at least the silver.
But that was not what he was wishing for and Azizul almost turn a childhood dream into a reality by coming from behind to beat burly Frenchman Gregory Bauge to force sudden-death.
Bauge, part of the French gold medal-winning team on Wednesday, won the first heat in a photo-finish and later crushed Azizul’s hopes of achieving sporting immortality by winning the deciding heat.
Wheel-to-wheel: Malaysia's Azizul Hasni Awang (right) battling it out with France's Gregory Bauge during the men's sprint final at the World Track Championships.-Reuters France’s Kevin Sireau beat Perkins for the bronze.
Malaysian sprint coach John Beasley said that Azizul had truly earned the respect of cycling world with his great run and believed that he was on the right track to contend strongly for the Olympic gold in London in three years’ time. “Speedwise, he is on par with the other top cyclists. His disadvantage was his physical size but he showed how strong hearted is his determination not to give up the fight,” said Beasley in a telephone interview.
“He got the respect of the world and it’s a matter of time before he becomes the world champion.” Azizul had beaten the last surviving British challenger Ross Edgar 2-1 to enter the semi-finals on Saturday. After narrowly failing to enter the keirin final two days ago, Azizul showed great determination to keep his campaign alive by beating Bauge, who was fastest in qualifying on 9.930 in the last 16 to earn direct qualification to the quarter-finals.
The double Asian champion got into the last 16 after prevailing over fellow Malaysian Rizal Tisin, who claimed bronze in the 1km time trial on Friday.
Josiah, the third Malaysian to qualify for the knockout stages, was beaten by Matthew Crampton of Britain in the first round of the knockout stage.
Azizul had led the Malaysian charge into the top 24 of the knockout stages after posting 10.120 to finish 12th in his qualifying run for his best effort for the year. Despite this, Azizul relinquished his Asian record of 10.160 set in last year’s world meet in Manchester to China’s Zhang Lei, who clocked 10.116 to finish seventh.
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