Azizulhasni Awang eliminated in sprint event

PARIS: National track cycling champion Mohd Azizulhasni Awang finished his sprint competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the 1/8 round at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines National Velodrome last night.

According to a report by Bernama, he did not qualify for the quarter-finals after finishing third in the repechage round, trailing 0.190 seconds behind Poland’s Mateusz Rudyk, who clocked 9.966 seconds, while Mikhail Yakovlev from Israel (+0.0543) came in second.

Only the winners of the second round would advance to the quarter-finals.

Earlier, the Pocket Rocketman had to compete in the repechage after losing to Jeffrey Hoogland (9.772s) from the Netherlands, finishing +0.037 seconds behind him in the 1/8 round heat 6.

Azizulhasni set a new national record with a time of 9.402 seconds, placing 10th in the qualifying round, surpassing his previous record of 9.523 seconds set at the Asian Cycling Championships (ACC) in Nilai last year.

Speaking to Bernama after the race, the silver medalist in the keirin event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics expressed overall satisfaction with the start of this campaign after achieving the desired time in the qualifying round.

“Our initial plan was to race one round at a time. I’m happy to have beaten Luca Spiegel from Germany and Hamish Turnbull from Great Britain.

“The plan was to beat Hoogland, but it didn’t happen. It was a great race in terms of technical and tactical execution, but I just wasn’t fast enough.

During the repechage round, John Beasley advised to conserve energy for the keirin. If I went to the repechage, I would face strong competitors like Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) in the quarter-finals, and I wasted energy. I will save my energy for the next race at 8 PM tomorrow.

Earlier, another national cyclist, Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom, did not advance to the 1/16 round after facing tough challenges from Yakolev in the 1/32 round of the event.

Shah Firdaus also failed to redeem himself in the 1/32 repechage round, finishing second in heat three behind Lithuania’s Vasilijus Lendel, who advanced to the 1/16 round.

Azizulhasni and Shah Firdaus will next compete in the main event, the keirin, starting this Saturday, while Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri will compete in the women’s sprint starting Friday.