Take a bow, Nur Rozi

SELANGOR and Johor have dominated the cycling sprint events with two gold medals each shared in the men’s and women’s events after two days of competition.

The story of the day, however, was of determination, courage, will power and putting aside even a call from the angel of death to win a silver medal for Perlis in the women’s 500m time-trial held on a wet and slippery road in Kuching yesterday.

Take a bow Nur Rozi Yanti Mat Rodzi for she was seriously injured

GRIT: Wins 500m time-trial silver just months after brush with death

last September after being run over by her own training van while training on the Silk Highway.

After the accident, the then 17year-old Nur Rozi suffered injuries to her head and lungs, along with three broken ribs. Her breathing was aided by a ventilator as she underwent a multitude of surgeries.

In her own words, she said she escaped death’s call by a whisker and it made her stronger.

“After the unfortunate incident, I was in a terrible shape as missed death by a few beats. Even the doctors were surprised when I came off the ventilator and started breathing on my own.

“But that brush with death did not place fear, but determination in my mind, to get back on my feet as fast as possible and start cycling again,” said the skinny girl with short hair.

It was painful to even walk eight months ago, but yesterday she raced like the wind to finish second with a time of 39.686s, to lose the gold by mere two seconds.

Champion Farina Shawati of Selangor clocked 37.123s for her second gold and pocketed RM7,000 — RM3,500 for each gold. Third was Siti Nur Alia of Terengganu on 39.895s.

In the men’s race, Johor’s Mohamed Shah Firdaus did not disappoint when he collected his second gold in the 1km time trial with a time of 1:02.981s. Second was Fadhil Zonis Selangor (1:03.267s) while third was Asyraf Naim of Terengganu in 1:05.307s.

Mohamed Shah, a national athlete, said : “It is not my pet event and I did not even train much for it. But everything went well and I could still feel the power in me right up to the finish line.”