SHAH, THE NEXT
Cyclist aims to step out of Azizul’s shadow
REPORTS BY FARAH AZHARIE farahazharie@nst.com.my after Azizul and Josiah Ng when he claimed the bronze medal in men’s keirin at the Track World Cup final.
At one point, Shah Firdaus became Malaysia’s number one in keirin, replacing Azizul after he moved from eighth to fourth with 1,850 points after winning the World Cup in Los Angeles the month before.
Malaysia’s leading women’s cyclist is Jupha Somnet, who has produced promising results at the Asian Track Cup in Taiwan and Japan Track Cup I and II in Shizuoka in the last two months, is all set for a golden outing at the KL Sea Games.
In June, the 24-year-old won the women’s scratch category as well as taking home the silver medal in omnium after defeating opponents from Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
The Perlis-born then went on to notch two podium finishes in Japan as she claimed silver, alongside teammate Grace Phang, behind home favourites Nao Suzuki-Yuya Hashimoto in the women’s madison.
Jupha and Grace went on to bag a second silver medal in madison after they were defeated by the same pair yet again.
Jupha, who missed out on qualifying for the omnium at the Rio Olympics 2016 where she was ranked fifth, is showing positive signs for Malaysia with less than three weeks to go.
The 2015 Sea Games bronze medallist is the only athlete to have been listed for both track and road as she is set to compete in road race, criterium and omnium which comprise six events: the 250m flying start time trial, elimination race, 10km points race, 500m time trial, 5km scratch race and the individual pursuit.