Skip to main content

Coach Beasley has big plans for Adiq in Tour of Langkawi


By LIM TEIK HUAT

PETALING JAYA: Adiq Husainie Othman (pic) is the country’s first World Junior Championship medal winner in track cycling but coach John Beasley feels that his prospect to be a top rider was better on the road.

Although the 18-year-old continued to show his potential on track with an impressive performance in the second leg of the Track World Cup in Melbourne last week, Beasley is keen to let him go for a pre-season road training in Europe with an eye on a strong campaign in the Tour of Langkawi next year.

Adiq, who has been with Australian professional continental team Drapac-Porsche in Melbourne for the last two months, competed in the points race in the second leg of the World Cup. He won his qualifying heat en route to a 10th place finish in the final.

He also made the scratch race final in the first leg in Manchester last month.

Adiq first made his mark on the track with a bronze medal effort at the world junior meet in Moscow in August. He followed up with a silver in the men’s road race in the Asian championships in Indonesia.

“He is doing equally well in the track endurance races but that is part of the training process,” said Beasley in a telephone interview from Melbourne.

“Adiq definitely has huge potential on the road and I believe he will make it big there too. The immediate focus is to get him to continue with early season training as I would want him to ride in the Tour of Langkawi and, hopefully, spring some surprises.”

If he switches focus to the road, it could mean having to forego participation in the World Track Championships in Copenhagen in March if he makes the grade.

Beasley added that they had not come to a final decision on the matter.

“We will deal with it when the time comes. We have to look at his best interests and talk to him to see what he wants,” said the Australian.

“As it is, he is a good prospect for the track and road competitions in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games next year.” STAR

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more

Govt Always Gives Emphasis To Sporting Culture, Says PM

KUALA TERENGGANU, May 29 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badaw i said the government always gives emphasis on cultivating a strong sporting culture in achieving excellence at the international level. As such, the Prime Minister said, it was important to scout for young talents in sports. "I observe that the Malaysia Games (Sukma) has become one of the important platforms to do so. "In this arena, the potentials and skills of the youngsters can be identified for development so that they can achieve greater success in sports," he said in his message in the souvenir book of the 12th Sukma from May 31 until June 9. Abdullah said he was aware that competition in sports was very keen and challenging but this did not mean that Malaysian athletes were incapable of competing at the international level. "The fact is that we have all the characteristics required to be excellent. We must inculcate a strong fighting spirit so that we don't easily surrender,...
1 comment
Read more