Beasley remains calm after M’sia fails to shine at 2018 ATC
NILAI: National track cycling coach, John Beasley remains calm despite seeing the national track cycling squad led by world keirin champion, Mohd Azizulhasni Awang having failed to shine at the 2018 Asian Track Championship (ATC) 2018 at the National Velodrome in Nilai which ended yesterday.
The Australia-born coach said most of the time his squad had carried out training sessions at the gymnasium as they made a neat preparation for the upcoming 2018 International Cycling Union (UCI) World Championship at the end of this month before heading for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in April.
He said the team’s progression could be seen gradually increasing and the preparations awee on the right track to ensure cyclists could reach their peak performance at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang this August.
“I think we had some highs and lows here, we still have a lot of work to do. We spent a lot of time training in the gym before the competition starts and did not have time to taper as we would be heading to the World Championship as well as Commonwealth Games.
“But I’m pretty happy if we look at how much Mohd Azizulhasni and Shah (Muhammad Shah Firdaus Shahrom) have improved.
“It shows we are heading in the right direction and you know that it’s all about Tokyo 2020. We want to show a little bit of what we have at the Asian Games in August. That’s where you will see us perform at our best this season,” he told reporters here yesterday.
At the same time, Beasley has urged all parties to not write off the national track cycling squad yet and continue giving support after the failure of elite’s cyclists, Mohd Azizulhasni, Muhammad Shah and Fatehah Mustapa in contributing gold medals in front of the home crowd.
“We are on the right track, just stay and be confident with us because there are many more to come. In the Commonwealth Games I expect to see Azizulhasni and Shah to do really well as you can see they are really in good form and this competition will just lift them to another level,” he added.
Mohd Azizulhasni only managed to bag one silver in the men’s sprint and had to settle with bronze in the men’s keirin but he had broken the 10-second barrier at sea level for the first time in his sprint event carrier.
More meaningful, the 9.774s he set during the qualifying round was better than his own national record of 10.073s as well as the Asian record of 9.843s set by Japan’s Nitta Yudai last year.
In the meantime, Malaysia ends the 2018 ATC without any medal on the final day after national women’s track cyclist ace Fatehah failed to finish on the podium after finishing sixth in the women’s keirin final yesterday.