Fatehah misses out on sprint elimination round by one place

PETALING JAYA: It was a heartbreaking start for cyclist Fatehah Mustapa as she just missed out on making the elimination round of the women’s sprint despite cracking her own national record at the World Track Championships in Melbourne.

Fatehah, who took silver in the same event at the Asian Cycling Championships in Cheras in February, did a qualifying run of 11.487 for a new personal best on an indoor track but it was only good for 25th overall.

The top 24 riders advanced to the knockout stages while Fatehah settled for the same position that she accomplished in her world meet debut in Holland last year.

Still, the 23-year-old Olympic hopeful should be pleased with her performance as it was just six weeks ago that she set the national record for the sprint, clocking 11.571 en route to finishing 24th in the final round of the World Cup in London.

China’s Guo Shuang was the best Asian finisher in the sprint after reaching the quarter-finals before she was eliminated by 2004 Olympic champion Anna Meares of Australia.

Guo Shuang was Asia’s first world champion in track cycling when she won the sprint in Poland in 2009.

The sprint is not Fatehah’s strongest event as she is focusing on the keirin tomorrow, when she hopes to repeat last year’s breakthrough achievement of reaching the final.

Mohd Edrus Yunos found out just how far he is against the world’s best when his best of 1:05.280 only put him 23rd overall in the 1km time trial, a non-olympic event.

National Sportsman of the Year Azizulhasni Awang and Edrus will be in action today and they will be bidding to advance to the elimination rounds of the men’s sprint.

But it is Azizul who stands the better chance to reach the elimination rounds to secure Malaysia the Olympic quota spot in the event.

The world meet is the last avenue to pick up world ranking points to qualify for the London Olympics and only the top two ranked Asian countries will make the cut.