BEASLEY PLEASED WITH PREPARATIONS
Coach chuffed as riders score in Aussie championships
NATIONAL track cyclists Azizulhasni Awang and Shah Firdaus Sahrom again proved they are shaping up well for the Tokyo Olympics after notching another solid performance at the Australian National Track Cycling Championships.
Azizulhasni and Shah bagged silver and bronze, respectively, in the men’s individual sprint event at the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane yesterday.
Azizulhasni defeated Leigh Hoffman (South Australia) and Tom Cornish (New South Wales) in the quarter-finals and semi-finals without dropping a round.
But despite putting up a brave effort, Azizulhasni could not match defending champion Matthew Richardson's (Western Australia) outright pace in the final and lost 2-0.
Shah, who lost to Richardson in his semi-final, finished third after a confident 2-0 win over Cornish in the bronze medal playoff.
Richardson and Cornish were part of the Aussie team that won bronze in the team sprint at the Berlin World Championships last year.
Shah and Azizulhasni had qualified fifth (9.802s) and sixth (9.838s) at the start of the day.
National head coach John Beasley said he was pleased with the results considering the circumstances.
“They are exactly where I thought they would be at this stage of their preparations (for the Olympics),” said Beasley.
“They are in a big training block at the moment, and I had trained the boys solidly two days before the competition.
“This is because the Olympics is a fiveday competition, so we need to prepare the boys for how they may feel (in Tokyo).
“I am very happy with how they have done, though there is still a lot of work to come.”
On Friday, Shah and Azizulhasni had teamed up with Russian rider Shane Perkins in the men’s team sprint event.
The trio finished second in the qualifying round after clocking 44.854s.
Azizulhasni, however, disclosed that they did not go on to contend for medals as they are not an official team.
Azizulhasni and Shah will be out to defend their gold and bronze medals in the keirin discipline today.
Shah (keirin) and Azizulhasni (individual sprint) had won medals at the Victoria state meet last month.