KUALA LUMPUR – Datuk Azizulhasni Awang broke his own national record when he surpassed his previous record of 9.523sec in the sprint event with a time of 9.402sec at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome during the qualifiers.
The qualifying round also saw the world record broken twice.
Trinidad and Tobago’s Paul Nicholas’s world record of 9.100sec was first surpassed by Australia’s Matthew Richardson with a time of 9.091sec, and then by world champion Harie Layversen of the Netherlands, who set a new world record of 9.088sec.
It was heartbreak for Shah Firdaus Sahrom despite advancing to the next round after clocking 9.635sec to finish 22nd, with the top 24 cyclists moving forward.
Shah was defeated by Israeli cyclist Mikhail Yakovlev in the 1/32 round and had to compete in the repechage round to stay in the race.
However, Shah’s journey ended there as he finished second in the repechage, behind Lithuania’s Vasilijus Lendel.
At the same time, Azizulhasni, the 2017 world champion, advanced smoothly to the 1/16 round after defeating German cyclist Luca Spiegel. He will next face Great Britain’s Hamish Turnbull.
Meanwhile, Nur Izzah Izzati Asri, competing in the women’s keirin event, put up a strong fight in her fifth heat but finished fourth, advancing her to the repechage round.
However, her hopes of reaching the quarterfinals were dashed as she finished third in the repechage, behind Kelsey Mitchell from Canada and Katy Marchant from Great Britain. – August 7, 2024