Three Sabahans go top at Asia Mountain Bike Series 2017
Three Sabahans cyclists were among the overall champions at the recently concluded Asia Mountain Bike Series 2017 held at Bukit Siol in Kuching, Sarawak.
KOTA KINABALU: Three Sabahans cyclists were among the overall champions at the recently concluded Asia Mountain Bike Series 2017 held at Bukit Siol in Kuching, Sarawak.
The cyclists were Natahsya Soon in the Women Elite Individual Downhill, Jr Stanly Jalip in the Men Master Individual Downhill and Sharin Amir in the Men Master Cross-Country Olympics.
The trio were also proudly awarded the Malaysian National Champion jerseys for winning the same event in Tambunan during the Sabah Leg of the series in August.
The overall champions were decided based on accumulated points over five series in 2017.
Natahsya was far ahead with 68 points in her category after having won in Tambunan, Timor Leste, Japan and Kuching whereas Sharin collected 60 points with victories in Tambunan, Timor Leste and Kuching.
Former national rider Stanly made sure he stayed on the podium on 36 points after his wins at Tambunan and Kuching respectively.
In fact, the victories were phenomenal as there were very close challenges for the title coming from professional riders at all the series.
The participants included the likes of Kazakhstan, Portugal, South Africa, Canada, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, India, Singapore, Brunei, Thailand, Timor Leste and Malaysia’s national cyclists.
The other overall winners of the Asia Mountain Bike Series were Kirill Kazantsev of Kazakhstan for Men Elite Cross Country Olympics, Ariana Thea Patrice Dormitario of the Philippines (Women Elite Cross Country Olympics), Koutarou Murukami of Japan (Men Junior Cross Country Olympics) and Yeh Yu Shuang of Chinese Taipei (Women Junior Cross Country Olympics).
The president of the Sabah State Cycling Association, Raijas Anang, said the achievement of the three Sabahans have only encouraged them to do even better in an expanded Asia Mountain Bike Series next year.
There will be four additional series to make nine series altogether for the 2018 edition.
“The state cycling association, with the strong support of the Youth and Sports Ministry, is very much looking forward to sending more elite riders to race in the Asia Mountain Bike series next year.
“We strongly believe that Malaysian riders should get more exposure to race internationally with professional riders and this year, we were able to prove that three of the titles were won by Sabah cyclists where two of them, JR Stanly and Natahsya, were SUKMA gold medallists.
“We have high hopes that these riders will be able to represent our country in the Asian Games for the Cross Country Olympics and Individual Downhill of the Mountain Bike discipline next year,” he said in a statement to the press yesterday.
Meanwhile, Sabah are set to play hosts to two of the Asia Mountain Bike Series in 2018, the first in conjunction with the Visit Keningau Year from July 27-29 and followed by the finale in Tambunan from December 7-9.
The other races under the Asia Mountain Bike Series will take place at Timberland in the Philippines in March; Yawatahama, Japan (May); Dili, Timor Leste (September); Cikole, Indonesia (September); Yamaguchi, Japan (October); Dumaguete, the Philippines (October); and Siol, Sarawak (November).
Both events in Sabah are sanctioned by the Union Cycling International (UCI), who will also host the UCI Junior Cross Country Olympics World Series while the Malaysia National Cycling Association will also have the Malaysian National Championship at the Keningau series.
“We hope to see a lot of Malaysians racing with professional riders from Asia as this series is also awarding important UCI points for the riders to secure national and individual rankings towards the Tokyo Olympic 2020 qualification,” added Raijas.