SWE Sprint Grand Prix

I’m finally back to updating you on my racing again. This last friday we made a quick trip to Erfurt, Germany for our final race prior to going to the big one in Beijing. We left Valencia, Spain, our current training base on Wednesday morning right after our gym session. You would think a trip from Spain to Germany would be a relative short flight but the whole trip from hotel to hotel took 12 hours! The actual flight was just under 3 hours but there was a two hour drive to the airport in Spain, followed by a three and a half hour drive from the airport in Germany. Plus it didn’t help that the navigation system in the rented van was giving us some wrong directions! Technology can bit a pain sometimes!

We arrived in Erfurt totally exhausted. After a light supper I took a nice shower and fell in bed at just past midnight! Luckily we had one day to recover from the trip.

The track in Erfurt is an outdoor partially covered 250m concret track. Previously in its place was a 333m uncovered concrete track but with all the international events being on 250m I guess they saw it was time to replace it with this one.  It was a good looking thing but when we got on it we were surprised at how bumpy it was considering it was only 4 months new. I guess not every country has the super machines that can make silky smooth tracks like in Japan. No one can beat those guys for perfection and precision.

Well the bumpyness along with the cool weather made for some slow times in the morning 200m sprint qualifying times. I had some bad stomach problems the past few days and perhaps that had a part in me being a bit off what I expected.  I went 10.90 to qualify 19th out of 40 sprinters. The fastest time was Chris Hoy in a blazing 10.30. My teammate Azizul went really well to qualify 6th in a 10.56. My first round was a three up against Shane Kelly and Adam Ptachnik of the Czech Republic. I tried to control it and bring up the pace but on the back straight with a lap and a half, Kelly attacked hard and I was too late to close it. In my rep I had a four up and at that point I had such a bad stomach ache that I couldnt even finish my sprint.  I was hurting.

In the team sprint qualifying, I did everything I could to not let me teammates down and luckily we did alright and qualified 3rd, just missing out on 2nd by a few hundredths of a second to Australia.

Luckily for me, there was a 4 hour break and I could take a much need rest and hope that my stomach would get better. The afternoon session started off with the team sprint final against Greece for 3rd place. We did well by doing pretty much the exact same time to beat them handily.  Germany won against the Aussies.

My final race was the keirin. I wasn’t expecting too much due to the bad day I was having. So I surprised msyelf and probably my coach, John when I won my qualifying heat against two German teammates to make the final. In the final the Aussies and Germans were well represented by the duos of Shane Kelly/Ryan Bayley and Carsten Bergemann/Michael Seidenbecher. The Greeks had World Championships bronze medalist Christos Volikakis and Malaysia had me. I drew the first position but as the gun went off, Ryan (Ray as everyone likes to call him) wanted it so I gladly let him have it. I was in the ideal position of sitting in 2nd with Kelly on my wheel and Volikakis shadowing him.  The two Germans were at the back.  As the motor pulled off they made an attempted attack which I covered with a right hand hook!  Take that!  hehe. I kept them off but felt another attack coming with 200m to go so I made my move and passed Ray. Coming out of turn four I felt someone on my right but I held it on the line to win by uh I dont know how much because I was so excited. All I know was that I won and I couldn’t believe it expecially after the horrible day I just had.  This is a much needed win for me.  More so for my head than anything else. I’ve had a tough last two years and getting this win over such a good field gives me back the confidence in myself.  Afterward a lot of people congratulated me. I got a bag of drinks and a bouquet of flowers which I threw to the crowd as did my victory lap complete with people clapping and victory music playing over the loud speakers.  It was an awesome feeling!

Unfortunately, we didn’t have much time and had to pack up straight away to make our 5am flight!  It was 10pm and we had to leave the hotel by 11pm for the 3 hour drive back to the airport.  We arrived back to our hotel in Valencia at 10am.  We were totally exhausted as you can imagine and slept practically the whole day!

I hope this is the start of all the good things to come in the next month. I’ll try my best to stay motivated to blog more about my month leading up to Beijing. Wish me all the best!

Revolution 3 in Melbourne

Some pics from Revolution 3 race.

Photos courtesy of Liz. Thanks!

 

Revolution 3-Farewell to Beijing tune up race

Thursday night was my first race since the world championships at the end of March.  The Revolution 3 was to be a good indication of where our team was at in our preperations for Beijing.  This race  was organized specifically as an official send off for the Aussie Olympic team and pitted the our Malaysian team against them. 

The format was a bit different than the usual champhionship even as this is designed with the spectators in mind.  The evening started off with a live Chinese lion dance ensemble complete with the costumed dansers, drums, gongs, and firework effects!  It was loud and very entertaining.  They even had kids on bikes with cute little lion costumes riding around the track.   The stadium was packed with a full house of about 4000 people.  They even had about 50 or so tables set up on the infield.  Those who wanted to spend the money were treated to a wine and dine experience! 

Our race program consisted of keirin, sprints and a one off team sprint against the Aussies.  First off was the keirin.  My heat included Mark French and Shane Kelly.   Since it was a compact program, they cut out all repacharges and only the first two went straight to the six up final.  The rest were eliminated.  I wasn’t switched on mentally and unfortunately finished third.   In the sprints,  my first round was a three up against two Aussies, both named Scott!  The format was also sudden death.  Winner only to the next round.  The first Scott, took off at two laps to go and I chased, keeping an eye on Scott Sunderland behind.  I caught the first Scott out of turn four and managed to hold off the other Scott.  

My next ride was against my training partner, Mark French.  He drew first position and I figured I’d try to come around out of turn four but didn’t have as much gas as him.  That was it, I was eliminated. 

My teammate fared much better.  Azizul, or Jojo as he likes being called managed to make the final against Ryan Bayley and Mark French.  He gave them a good run for their money but finished 3rd.  In the Keirin he did well to beat the whole Aussie team, taking a spectacular win!  My other teammate, Edrus did a great job by giving him a big lead out.  Way to go Azizul and Edrus!  These guys have just improved so much over the past year.  They are a real asset to Malaysian sport and great fun to train with! 

The final race was the much anticipated team sprint ride off.  Azizul was to lead out for the first time.  I would go second and Rizal would anchor us.  The Aussie line up was Daniel Ellis, Mark Frenchy, followed by Ryan Bayley.  This will most probably be their formation in Beijing. 

Azizul start me off well.  He doesn’t have a super fast first sixty meters which is alright with me because neither do I.  But out of turn two, he just hit the afterburners and I had to chase hard to stay on his wheel.  I pulled off my lap without any trouble and when I pulled up, I realized that we were ahead of the Aussie team!  Rizal did a wonderful job to hold Ryan off and we had won!  Our time was 45.55 and theirs was 45.59.  You can only imagine our joy at beating a team of that calibre.  This will give us more confidence that we will be a team to be reckoned with in the future.  I’m sure it will take us sometime before we’ll be winning international accolades but we’re moving in the right direction. 

110th Austral Wheelrace in Melbourne

Josiah Ng was on form this evening and entertained the crowd with some strong rides

Josiah Ng and Gary Mueller in the Austral final

Josiah Ng tells David Mackenzie how he won the third heat

Photo ©: CJ Farquharson/WomensCycling.net

The Results

Malvern Star Invitational Keirin Final
 
1 Josiah Ng                                       
2 Azizul Awang                                            
3 Steven Sanonetti                                        
4 Joel Leonard 

Cyclecover 110Th Austral Wheelrace Heat Elite Men

Heat 3:
1 Josiah Ng                                               
2 Stuart Vaughan                                          
3 Eddie Wilson                                            
4 Damien Semmler

Source: http://www.cyclingnews.com/track.php?id=track/2008/mar08/austral_wheelrace08 

Good Luck Beijing

Immediately after Sydney ended, the whole track cycling caravan packed up and moved on to the next venue which was held as a pre-Olympic test event in conjunction with the 2nd World Cup. We flew Malaysian airlines via Kuala Lumpur which was an eight hour/six hour flight with a three hour lay over in KL. On our flight was the Dutch team, part of the American team, Spanish team and Mexican team. I slept for most of the flight so it went by pretty fast. Theo the Bos and myself were lucky enough to get upgraded to Business so our flight was made even better by the fine service we received. The MAS crew knew who we were so it was nice to get the additional royal treatment.

The track in Beijing was very well designed. Everything from the building to the actual track itself was of Olympic caliber. They heated the infield to a warm 30 degrees but I think on the actual track it was about 25-27 degrees which was optimal for some fast times.

Our team sprint changed two members from Sydney. Instead of Junaidi, young 19 year old Edrus (we call him Eddie the “Eagle” ) stated us out in a very solid 18.2. Not bad for a young kid who was doing a start for only the 2nd time in competition on a 250m track. I think there is a lot more to come from this talent. I felt pretty good despite having a horrible cough and a sore throat. My split was a 13.3 which was 6th fastest out of 27 teams! I was happy to have been slightly faster than Jason Quelly’s split. My split was also slightly faster than one of the German and Aussie teams. Rizal anchored and did a good job with a 13.9. We had to be happy to shatter our national record with a 45.5. Our previous best was a 46.2. It was good enough for only 13th place which was a real bummer because 12th place is when the points end!

The following day was my pet event, the Keirin. I felt quite confident and was eager to get it on. I was in heat 5 out of 6 heats. The same cut throat rules applied as in Sydney with only the winner qualifying to the semi finals. I had Kevin Sireau of France in my heat so he was the only danger. The fiesty Greek rider also posed a threat as he can cause some havoc. I decided to take the motor and control from the front. I believe a Spaniard or Czech made the first move and I gladly let him take over and defend from 2nd position. Coming in bell lap the Greek made a move so I had to commit. Then came the super speedster, Sireau. I threw a decent hook and drag raced him to the finish but out of turn three I started to sputter. He powered through and I had lost the battle. That took a lot out of me. I rode it very well tactically but Sireau was just too strong.

I tried my best to recover from that but in the Rep about fifteen minutes later I was still gassed. I didn’t even have enough to make a move. Another French, Arnaud Tournant took the win easily and that was the end of the line for me. Better luck next time.

We had to quickly pack up move on. Our next destination was Korat, Thailand. I had to skip the sprints the next day and travel to the South East Asian games. Yet another long trip in our hectic schedule. It took all day and we finally arrived at the Games village at 1 am. And guess what, today I had to compete only 15 hour after we arrived. Luckily it was only a 200 meter qualifier. My first time on the track was when I had to actually ride the 200m. That wasn’t ideal but I had no choice. I still managed an okay time of 10.62. Enough to break the Games record and qualify first ahead of my teammate, Azizul.

Tomorrow, we have the quarter finals and on Wednesday, we have the semi’s and finals. Wish me luck. Cheers!

World Cup Sydney

A record number of 395 riders were entered in this past weekend’s world cup,  including 15 reigning world champions.  Everyone’s goal in mind is to pursue important points toward Olympic qualification.  My goal leading up to this was to make the keirin final and make PB’s in the 200m sprint and team sprint.

On Friday, our Malaysian team of Junaidi, Azizul and myself lined up for the team sprint.  There were 26 teams which is about double of what it usually is.  Our goal was to end up in the middle somwhere and make a national record.  We just missed out on our national record by a tenth of a second which was a disappointment.  We ended up 17th with a time of 46.39.  Our goal was a mid 45 seconds which we are very capable of.

My pet event, the keirin was held on Saturday.  When I saw the start list, I had to swallow a big lump in my throat.  There were 6 heats totalling 37 riders and only the winners of each heat and each repecharge would make it through the semi finals!  Usually the first 2 riders make it through but it had to be cut down to only winners because of the amount of riders starting.   I dread heat five which included two strong riders from Japan and Ukraine.   I fought for the bike and tried to control it from the front.  The move came with a lap and a half to go and the Ukraine rider choped my front wheel.  I narrowly avoided crashing by backing off and made my move on the back straight.  I sitll had a lot of power left and managed to cross the line second to the Ukraine rider but I knew he would most probably be relegated for his dangerous move.  My assumption was confirmed five minutes later and I breathed a sigh of relief.  In the semi finals, I drew the first heat which included the reigning world champion, Chris Hoy of GB, Stephan Nimke from Germany, Michael Bourgain from France, Vinokurov from Ukraine (again!)  and a good sized Chinese.  I fought for the motor again and won but Chris wanted it as well.  I gladly obliged!  I thought to myself at the time oh this is so perfect.  I also had to remind myself do hold on for dear life and glue myself to his wheel!  I did a great job and he took me all the way to the line to qualify for the finals!  I was jubilant!

Just to give you an idea of the depth in the keirin field here, the two top Germans, Australians, and French didn’t make it to the final.  Superstar Gregory Bourge of France didn’t even make it out of the first round!

The final consisted of the three reigning world championship medalists Hoy, Edgar, and Bos.  Roberto Chiappa, Andrey Vinokurov and myself weren’t really a factor in the final as Hoy and Edgar teamed up to stretch it out as soon as the motor pulled off.  Even the superstar Theo Bos didn’t have an answer to their sheer genius.   I still have a bit of work to do before I can have a good impact in that field with that horsepower.

Having done so well in the keirin motivated me for the 200m qualifying the next day.  There was an unbelievable 67 starters!  Yet another world cup or world championship record.  Beforehand, I spoke to my coach, John Beasley and we thought that the cut-off would be in the high 10.3’s to be top 16.  I normally go about 10.5 on a good day!  So I had to make a perfect run just to qualify.  I did just that, and qualified in a time of 10.38.  I felt pretty good about that until I found out that I was 17th!   Thats absurd that a 10.38 can’t even get me in the sprint rounds.   The trade team rule screws riders like me because it allows the big powerhouse countries like France, German, GB, and Australia to field their entire sprint teams! 

Well, I made my personal best on a 250m track so there isn’t much else I can do except try again at the next world cup.  I’m off to Beijing today. Wish me more luck!  Cheers.

Perth Grand Prix

Perth went quiet well.  It was a very long day but I came back content with how I rode.  I qualified 4th in the sprints with a 10.60, tied with Matt Crampton of GB.  Chris Hoy qualified first in front of Mark French and Ross Edgar.  In the first round I faced off against  Matt.  I controlled from the front and coming in a lap to go he made his move and we dragged raced through the back straight.  I lost it on the line so I think my finishing speed is a bit lacking. I’ll have to work on that in the next few weeks.  In the team sprint, I joined the two Aussies,  French and Leonard against the Brits.  It was going quiet well when Frenchy pulled off for me to take over but Joel couldn’t finish it off.  The keirin final was a quality field of 7 including the current world champion, Chris Hoy and World bronze medalist, Ross Edgar, Mark French,  Joel Leonard, 2000 World Champion Jan Van Eidan, and Matt Crampton, and myself.  It was a fight for the motor from the start as everyone wanted to be up front.  The pace was high from the get go.  The motor must have pulled off at close to 60km/h.   With two to go, Jan made the first move from the back.   I was in fourth position.  With 200m to go I made my move on the outside and threw my bike at the line, just missing out on 2nd place, French.  Chris Hoy crossed the line first in a convincing win.   I think I’m in good form leading up to the world cup season and I can hardly wait for more action!

Perth Cycling Grand Prix

My training partner Mark French and I will take a 3-4 hour flight to Perth, Western Australia tommorow to face of against the British Olympics team in the Perth Grand Prix.  They are having a training camp there and so it will be good for everyone to gauge how well we are going prior to the world cup in Sydney at the end of the month.  It will be a long day for us as we fly out tommorow at 10am, compete from 7-11pm and take the 12.30 red eye back to Melbourne and arrive at 6am on Saturday.  That will be almost a 24 hour trip so hopefully we can take bits and pieces of naps throughout.  Wish me luck!

3rd place in 200m Sprints

Latest results:
After the news in Star Sports dated Tuesday, 4 Sept 07

200m Sprint (Elite Men) : Josiah Ng 3rd BRONZE
200m Sprint (Elite Women) : Fatehah Mustapha SILVER

Josiah and Fatehah make it to the sprint semis

By LIM TEIK HUAT

Medal hopeful: Josiah Ng has made it to the semi-final of the men’s 200m sprint in Bangkok.

PETALING JAYA: Track cyclists Josiah Ng and Fatehah Mustapha defied the odds to qualify for the semi-finals of the 200m sprints in the Asian Cycling Championships at Hua Mak Velodrome in Bangkok yesterday. 

But Malaysia had no medal to show after the first day of track competitions. 

Four individual pursuit events in senior and junior categories for both men and women were contested and Uracca Leow came closest to winning a medal. 

Uracca made it in fourth place in the qualification round but was beaten in the ride for the bronze. 

However, Josiah raised hopes of becoming the first Malaysian in 20 years to win a medal in the sprint event in the senior category of the championships with a fighting display to make the last four. 

Josiah, fighting heat exhaustion, beat China’s Zhang Lei 2-0 in the quarter-finals but it was the end of the road for Azizul Hasni Awang. 

The 18-year-old from Terengganu was beaten 1-2 by another Chinese, Li Wenhao. 

Josiah will be up against Japanese Kazunari Watanabe in the semi-finals today while Wenhao will face Doha Asian Games gold medallist Tsubasa Kitatbasa. 

In qualification rounds earlier, Azizul had upstaged his more illustrious team-mate. Azizul made it to the knockout stage in third place (10.61) while Josiah was placed fifth (10.74). 

The 26-year-old Josiah, who is competing in the Asian championships for the first time, said that it was a tough day for him to adjust to the conditions in the velodrome. 

Fatehah: In the 200m sprint semi-finals.

“I was really feeling the heat. The humidity level here is much higher than in Kuala Lumpur. I had to put on ice mask and the support staff helped by giving massages. I had a bad morning session but I’m just relieved to pull through,” said the 2004 Olympian in a telephone interview yesterday. 

Kazunari was the fastest rider in the qualification round (10.50) and being part of the Japanese trio who took the Asian Games gold in team sprint, he will certainly start as the favourite. 

“I’m looking forward to racing against him tomorrow,” said Josiah, who has decided not to compete in the team sprint to conserve his energy for the keirin event tomorrow. 

Malaysia will also have a representative in the semi-finals of the junior women’s category today in Fatehah. 

The Terengganu lass, who is still recovering from a collarbone operation recently, put up a gallant display for a 2-1 win over Galina Lavrentyeva of Kazakhstan. 

Fatehah was second fastest in the qualification round in 12.50 behind South Korean Kim Wongyeong. 

In the junior men’s category, Mohd Syamil Bahrum qualified third fastest after Korean rider Han Lee-ki (10.96) and Japan’s Tomohiro Fukaya (11.08). But he was beaten 0-2 by Japan’s Kazuki Amagai in the quarter-finals. 

Another junior rider, Mohd Zamani Mustaruddin, clocked 11.63 and missed out on a place in the last eight by one spot. 

Link: http://thestar.com.my/sports/story.asp?file=/2007/9/4/sports/18774870&sec=sports

T-Town Wrap Up

Link: http://www.cyclingnews.com/track.php?id=track/2007/aug07/madisoncup07

The final race of the T-town season last friday evening was the Madison Cup. Even though that was the main attraction, the organizers still had a sprint tournament for us sprinters to showcase our talents. The morning session started off with the 200 meter qualifying. Not my forte but I’m focusing on getting better at it. In the recent past at all the top level competitions like the world cups, I’ve just missed out on qualifying in the top 16 by even thousands of a second! I believe I’ve qualified 17th three times in a row. Once I tied for 16th and lost the coin toss! Needless to say, I’ve got to step up my game just a tad, and I’d be right in there with the top boys.

On that cool and calm Friday morning, I posted a time of 10.78. Good enough for fifth out of some two dozen guys. It was the fastest time I’d posted to date at this track so I had to be content. In the first round I met Kasper from Denmark. A crafty and compact sprinter, I was not to take him lightly. He tried to hold me up against the fence, but with 1 lap to go, I floored it and took the lead. On the back straight, I just accelerated enough to hold him at my hip and won with ease. The quarter finals was to be a lot tougher as I had to face Britain’s Matthew Crampton. Off the bike, he’s the nicest guy but on the bike he has a reputation of having amazing staying power. Once the guy gets on, he just doesn’t slow down. I knew he was going to lead it out and it would be a task trying to come around. But it was a special day for me and I aserted some patients, just making my move going into turn three. I punched it out of the turn and got him by just over half a wheel. It was a nice win but I didn’t have time to enjoy because Australia’s Shane Kelly, the legand had just upset the top seed, my training partner Mark French, also from the Australian team. One can not say enough about this champion. I grew up looking up to him in hero like worship. Kells, as everyone calls him has some skill! He is a multi Olympic medallist and at least half a dozen world championships titles to his palmares. I knew I had to have the ride of my life to beat him. He chose to control the race and I once again asserted my patience. On bell lap, he slowly accelerated while maneuvering to keep me at bay, then punched it into turn three. I put in everything I had and to pass him all while dodging his “hook” and just only got him on the line.

This was my best sprint ride in the last few years and I had to hold myself back in the excitement. It was still too early for celebration as I had to meet my toughest competitor yet, Ryan Bayley. The double gold medallist from Athens, multi-Commonwealth games and world championship gold medallist was back in form and looking strong throughout his races.  Off the track, I’ve developed a good frienship with him.  We have spent two stints together in Japan racing the professional keirin series.  He is one of the nicest guys you can find around but on the track, I had to forget about our frienship for just a minute or two.  I was pumped and scared at the same time.  How would I beat the guy?   After the whistle blew to start our race, I slowly peddled and contemplated my next move.  I was trying to get into this guys head.  He usually likes to control the race but this time he insisted that I lead by keeping a fair distance away.  Then I took it…full gas and off I went with 500m to go.  I was dying, dying on the back straight and out of turn four I felt him roll me over.  It was all I could do, but the Olympic champ had beat me with relative ease.  I felt angry at first.   Why had I committed so early?  He had known all along that I would take the bait and go early. 

Well with that, I have to say that it was a good sprint tournament for me.  I was the only non Aussie in the top 5.  These guys are going to be a team to be reckoned with but I’m sure I made my statement. 

Josiah Ng is back and coming strong.  Watchout Beijing!