Fatehah Mustapa becomes the first Malaysian woman to make a final at the World Championships. Fatehah finished fifth in the keirin final early yesterday morning.
FATEHAH Mustapa's historic ride in the women's keirin final at the Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands early yesterday morning revived much hope in women's cycling in the country.
The 21-year-old was unlucky to finish fifth, having avoided a collision after Cuba's Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez had crashed and brushed against her as they were racing on the final lap.
But being in the final itself had already etched the Kuala Terengganu-born Fatehah's name in history as the first Malaysian woman to make a final at the World Championships.
It was also just reward for Fatehah, having finally made it to the World Championships, as having qualified last year she was not sent to the championships due to budget constraint and the emphasis then was on the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
"She had produced the best performance among any of those in our squad this time around and it was timely that Fatehah turned all the attention towards herself," said national team manager Datuk Naim Mohamad.
"Regardless of the result, Fatehah was riding very impressively throughout the World Championships and showed that she has learnt a lot from being based in Melbourne with the elite squad.
"She is now well in the running for an Olympic berth, but with this performance in the keirin, who knows what she can achieve in the next 12 months and in the Olympics?"
Naim said with much of the development of the women's squad affected -- Fatehah is the sole woman in the Road to London cycling programme -- this performance serves as a shot in the arm.
Fatehah had also finished 10th in the 500m time trial and only just missed out on the knockout rounds in the 200m sprint.
"We hope the others in the women's squad, the juniors in particular, look at this as something they too can achieve.
"We do have some promising talent in the likes of Jupha Somnet and Ummi Hamimah Mohamad but we would like to see more coming up," added Naim.
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