Aichi-Nagoya 2026: Azizulhasni, Shah Firdaus Advance to Keirin Semifinals

SHIZUOKA: National track cycling aces Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang and Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom kept Malaysia’s challenge alive in the men’s keirin at the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Games after securing their places in the semifinals at the Izu Velodrome here today.

Both Malaysian riders earned automatic qualification after finishing second in their respective heats.

Mohd Azizulhasni finished behind China’s Xie Han, while Shah Firdaus was the second-fastest rider in his heat, which was won by Hong Kong’s To Cheuk Hei.

Japan’s Minato Nakaishi and Kazakhstan’s Kirill Kurdidi also qualified automatically after finishing among the top two in their respective heats.

Riders who failed to qualify automatically will still have an opportunity to stay in contention through the first repechage round scheduled for later today.

The men’s keirin semifinals and final are scheduled to take place this afternoon.

Meanwhile, Nur Alyssa Mohd Farid also booked her place in the women’s individual sprint semifinals after defeating home rider Aki Sakai 2-0 in the quarterfinals.

However, Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri, who had earlier won bronze in the keirin, was unable to follow Alyssa into the semifinals after losing 0-2 to China’s Jiang Yulu.

Alyssa will face China’s Yuan Liying, the keirin gold medallist, in the semifinals, while Jiang Yulu is scheduled to take on Japan’s Mina Sato in the other semifinal.

Izzah Izzati will compete in the fifth-to-eighth-place classification race.

BERNAMA