Azizul primed for Pruszkow
world champion Azizulhasni Awang could just sneak under the radar going into the World Track Cycling Championships which start in Pruszkow, Poland tomorrow.
After wearing the rainbow jersey following his World Championship triumph in Hong Kong in 2017, Azizulhasni became a marked man at the next world meet in Apeldoorn, the Netherlands, last year.
However, Azizulhasni’s world title defence came undone by a viral infection as he was eliminated in the first round.
The Terengganu-born ridetr has had a solid, but not spectacular, run-up to the world meet this year, which is ideal as peaking early would be detrimental to his chances — especially in the keirin — where timing is everything.
After a slow start to the season, Azizulhasni did well to bag his first UCI World Cup medal in seven years after clinching the keirin bronze at the Berlin leg in December. He then backed it up with a silver in the same discipline at the London round a fortnight later.
Azizulhasni later celebrated his 31st birthday in January with a gold in the sprint and a bronze in the team sprint with Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom and Fadhil Mohd Zonis at the Indonesia Asian Track Cycling Championships.
This is a good sign for the Pocket Rocketman who depends on his explosive acceleration, guile and determination to make up for his lack of size.
Firdaus and Fadhil will be the only two other Malaysians competing in Poland this week and they will again be teaming up with Azizulhasni in the team sprint.
Having Shah qualifying for the keirin final will give Azizulhasni, who is ranked fourth in the discipline, a strategic boost against an ultra-competitive field which also features World No 1 Tomoyuki Kawabata (Jap), fomer keirin world champion Joachim Eilers (Germany) and sprint world champion Matthew Glaetzer (Aus) among other top-class cyclists.
“I expect it to be very close because of the double qualifying points offered for the Olympics (qualifying) rankings. I do not think any one country will be able to dominate the event,” said Azizulhasni.