Nur Aisyah clinches bronze
NUR Aisyah Zubir did well to clinch the women’s criterium bronze medal, but hopes of a gold from the men’s event did not materialise at the Hanoi Sea Games yesterday.
Aisyah finished third in the bunch sprint behind silver medallist Nguyen Thi That of Vietnam and Thailand’s Jutatip Maneephan, who claimed the gold in 46 minutes and 39 seconds in the 29.6km race in Hoa Binh.
Malaysia’s Ju Pha Som Net (same time) and Siti Nur Alia Mansor (+5s) crossed the line in sixth and 18th place, respectively.
Aisyah said: “To be honest, we were not really expecting a medal today because we were up against some very strong riders.
The men’s event witnessed almost every other country working against Malaysia as Harrif
Saleh was the outright favourite to win the criterium, which covered a distance of 44.4km, gold. Vietnam’s Quang Van Cuong crossed the line first to take the gold in 56:13s.
Thailand’s Sarawut Sirironnachai and Singapore’s Yeo Boon Kiak (same time) claimed silver and bronze.
Harrif (+50s), Nur Amirull Fakhruddin Mazuki (+50s) and Nur Aiman Zariff (+1:03s) crossed the line 17th, 19th and 21st.
Assistant manager Sayuti Zahit admitted that it was a tough race.
“All the teams knew that Harrif would most likely win the gold in a bunch sprint finish, so they did everything they could to stop that from happening,” said Sayuti. “No other teams wanted to work together with us to bring back the breakaway, and it was
just not possible to do it with only three riders in the team.
“Previously, six riders were allowed in the criterium, which would have given us a better chance.”
Harrif had won the event at the 2015 Singapore and 2017 Kuala Lumpur editions. The event was not held in Manila three years ago.