PETALING JAYA, Aug 25 — Malaysia’s young cyclists are on track, slowly yet surely, shaping up for medals at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games and at the Jakarta Asian Games, the following year.

The team of riders, being groomed for both Games and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics by back-up coach Junaidi Mohamad Nasir, showed reasonable promise at the Track World Junior Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, which ended on Sunday.

Despite not winning medals, Junaidi said the four teenage cyclists — Mohd Shariz Efendi Shahrin, Mohd Khairil Nizam Rasol, Mohd Fadhil Mohd Zonis and Eiman Firdaus Mohd Zamri — finished respectably high among Asian riders.

“They failed to bring home any medal but we managed to produce the next Azizulhasni Awang for the 2020 Olympics,” he said.

“The boys set a new Asian and national junior record for sprint team while Khairil was third best in keirin, despite his disqualification.”

“We have the best sprint team in Asia and the best world top three in kierin,” said Junaidi, himself a former cyclist trained by Australian John Beasley, the head coach.

At Astana, Khairil won bronze but was disqualified after he was judged to have blocked Martin Cechman of Czech Republic. He was relegated to sixth.

Earlier, the 17-year-old teamed up with Shariz Effendi and Fadhil to set a new Asian and national junior record of 46.095 seconds in the team sprint to finish sixth.

The trio improved on the former national mark of 47.163s set by Fadhil’s brother, Firdaus, Arfy Qhairant Amran and Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom at the Asian Championships in 2013.

The Asian record of 46.576s was set by China at the same event.

Shariz Effendi also made history by being the first Malaysian to reach the sprint quarterfinals.

“I am satisfied with their performance, especially Khairil. In the last two years we had Muhammad Shah Firdaus, last year we had Firdaus (Zonis) and the boys’ performance this year showed we are continuing to produce quality talent,” he said.

However, Junaidi stressed the team still needed time to develop to be in a better stage.

“To make that happen we need support from the sports body,” he said.