NILAI – Kedah’s women’s track cycling trio successfully defended the team sprint title in the 2024 National Track Cycling Championships for the third consecutive year at the National Velodrome today.
The Kedah trio, spearheaded by national track cycling star Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri, accomplished the hattrick of titles since the team had also won in 2022 and 2023.
In the gold medal action today, Kedah, led by Nurul Izzah, Nurul Nabilah Mohd Asri and Nur Fitrah Shaari clocked 52.696sec to edge Penang’s Nur Umairah Qhaisara Zulfikha Razak, Intan Nur Irdrisha Abdul Razak and Nurul Eliana Syafika Azizan in a close race as the Islanders finished with a time of 52.886sec.
Commenting on the race results, Nurul Izzah acknowledged that the competition was stiff since Penang – despite fielding young riders – put up a strong challenge.
“It was end-to-end stuff. We were leading in the first lap but Penang pipped us in the second lap. However, we did not give up and came back stronger to win the final lap by a close margin.
“Penang’s young rider Umairah was giving us a close fight,” said Nurul Izzah after today’s race.
In the men’s competition, Johor, headed by Muhammad Ridwan Saharom, Mohamad Akmal Nazimi Jusena and Muhammad Nabil Wafiq Zamri continued their dominance in the championships by winning the men’s team sprint for the fifth consecutive year after beating the trio from Sarawak.
Ridwan, popularly known as Boy among the cycling fraternity, guided his team to finish the race with a time of 45.880sec, ahead of the Sarawakian trio who clocked a time of 47.116sec.
In the race for the bronze medal, Kedah clocked 46.977sec to beat Selangor which finished with a time of 51.814sec.
“This year we were determined to defend the title. We tried a different strategy in the first lap but found the going slow, so I had to change the strategy and take the lead and that helped us finish the race in first place,” he said.
Meanwhile, Terengganu, led by Nur Aisyah Mohamad Zubir claimed the gold medal in the women’s 3km team pursuit after beating Kedah in the final.
Nur Aisyah was assisted by Dahlia Hazwani Hasyim, Ameera Alya Md Zahiruddin and Nur Airien Wadhiah Mohd Adni. Meanwhile, Kedah was represented by Phi Kun Pan, Nur Fitah Shaari, Nurul Nabilah Mohd Asri and Anis Natasya Ahmad.
Terengganu also swept the men’s team pursuit gold through Muhammad Afiq Iskandar Hasyim, Muhammad Iqbal Daniel Mohd Nawawi, Ahmad Irfan Abdul Hamid and Mohd Aiman Haiqal after beating Johor and Kedah. – May 20, 2024