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Azizul puts aside celebration to work on Asian meet

PETALING JAYA: The celebrations will be put aside for world championship track cycling silver medallist Azizul Hasni Awang as he has the Asian championships coming up soon in Sharjah.

Azizul, who finished behind Olympic champion Chris Hoy of Britain in the keirin final to claim his second career world championships silver medal in Copenhagen last Sunday, returned immediately to the national team’s training base in Melbourne yesterday.

Utmost on his mind is to make a successful bid to regain the Asian keirin title in the championship at the United Arab Emirates from April 9-17.

Azizul failed to win the keirin gold medal for the third successive time in the championships in Indonesia last year. He finished fourth and Hafiz Sufian lessened the blow for Malaysia by taking the silver.

However, Azizul still returned with two gold medals. He retained the 200m sprint title and partnered Rizal Tisin and Mohd Edrus Yunos for a first Malaysian win in the team sprint event.

The Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) deputy president, Datuk Naim Mohamad, said that Azizul would resume training after a day’s rest.


“Azizul will lead the team for the Asian championships in the absence of Josiah Ng, who has to go to Japan for the keirin school,” he said.

“We want to maintain the two gold medals we won in the senior ranks last year but it will not be easy.
“In the men’s track competition, we will not only face strong competitions from Japan, Iran and South Korea but China are also capable of stealing the show this time.

“The championships in the UAE will see very good participation in an Asiad year and we will have good opportunities to gauge our chances ahead of the Guangzhou Games (in November).”
Naim is the team manager for the track squad for both the Commonwealth in New Delhi (October) and the Asiad.
The Asian championships will also mark the return of Rizal to competition since he resumed training in Melbourne more than a month ago after suffering injuries in a road accident.

The other track cyclist in the team are Edrus, Hafiz, Hariff Salleh, Amir Mustafa Rusli and Mohd Akmal Amrun.

Anuar Manan, who became the first Malaysian stage winner in the Tour of Langkawi recently, will lead the charge for the road squad. The others in the team are Ahmad Haidar Anuawar, Adiq Husainie Othman, Mohd Zamri Salleh, Mohd Nur Ridzuan Zainal, Ahmad Fallanie Ali and Ng Yong Li.

Fatehah Mustapa is the sole entry for the women’s track competitions while Nor Azian Alias, Nurul Akhmar Badeuzzaman and Mariana Mohamad will feature in road races.


Star

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