By Arnaz M. Khairul
THOUGH 12 Malaysians have qualified for the UCI Track World Championships in Manchester, England, on March 26-30, the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) may send only five.
This, despite Malaysia having earned places in seven events, making the country the third biggest Asian team in terms of representation.
Apparently, the MNCF is focusing on those with a clear shot at Olympic qualification despite Malaysia being ranked world No 10 in the team sprint, the country’s best ever position in the nations’ ranking.
Keirin riders Josiah Ng and Azizul Hasni Awang lead the pack of qualifiers, both with a chance to make it to the Beijing Olympics in August in three events - the keirin, 200m sprint and team sprint.
Josiah and Azizul are 11th and 22nd in the world keirin rankings respectively, while Azizul is 15th and Josiah 20th in the 200m sprint.
The duo, along with the team sprint combination that includes Edrus Yunus, Junaidi Nasir and Rizal Tisin, are on the verge of Olympic qualification, which in itself will mark another piece of history.
Rizal qualified for the World Championships by virtue of being Asian 1km time trial champion, as did Asian scratch race champion Harrif Salleh. But both the 1km time trial and scratch race are non-Olympic events.
“I will recommend that we send all of those who qualified, although I feel the joint-committee only wants to focus on those with a chance for Olympic qualification,” said MNCF deputy president Datuk Naim Mohamad.
With the UCI Track World Cup series having ended, the World Championships will be the final qualification meet for the Beijing Olympics.
“The team have already shown how much we have improved, even compared to last year. As for the Olympics, the last time out we only had Josiah qualifying. This time it looks likely to improve five-fold,” said Naim.
List of qualifiers - Men: Josiah Ng (keirin, 200m sprint, team sprint), Azizul Hasni Awang (keirin, 200m sprint, team sprint), Rizal Tisin (1km time trial, team sprint), Edrus Yunus, Junaidi Nasir (team sprint), Amir Mustafa Rusli (individual pursuit, team pursuit), Harrif Salleh (scratch race, team pursuit), Jasmin Ruslan, Thum Weng Kin, Akmal Amrun (team pursuit); Women: Uracca Leow (individual pursuit), Nor Azian Alias (points race).
