KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 — Former track ace Josiah Ng reckons that Mohd Azizulhasni Awang is ready to lead a renaissance of sorts in Malaysian cycling when he competes in the Tokyo Olympics in July following a two-bronze feat at the recent World Track Cycling Championships in Berlin.
Josiah was awed after watching the Dungun-born Azizul, powered by his new RM300,000 WXR Vorteq bike, clinch bronze medals in men’s keirin and sprint in Germany.
Azizul had, in the sprint event, set a new Asian and national record of 9.548 seconds to finish fifth from 34 riders in the qualifying round on Saturday. His time erased the Japanese Tomohiro Fukaya’s 9.609s Asian record as well as his own national mark of 9.760s.
That led to three-time Olympian Josiah taking to the social media to praise his 32-year-old former teammate and raising hopes of another classy outing from the Pocket Rocketman at the Tokyo Olympics on July 24-August 9.
“If bike racing is an art, then Azizulhasni just painted a Picasso. Here’s to him painting a Da Vinci at Tokyo 2020! Two bronze medals, one Asian record and three personal bests (team) are an amazing feat for any country let alone one with only one indoor Velodrome.
“Malaysia has a lot to be excited about our cycling team’s Tokyo chances. A sharp contrast to the results at last year’s World Championships. We will all be rooting for our team at Tokyo 2020! Fight on team!,” former Commonwealth Games and Asian champion Josiah posted on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Josiah also apologised to national coach John Beasley after criticising the Australian for the team’s poor run in last year’s World Championship in Pruszkow, Poland.
“I was disappointed for several reasons and called out John Beasley for hiring an ‘overpaid’ expat coaching staff. Well, at 500 GBP (about RM2,697) per day, I personally thought that was too much for the ROI (return of investment) at last year’s world’s.
“I am glad to be wrong and humbled and want to publicly apologise to John and the team for my lack of foresight,” said Josiah, whose Facebook post was then shared by Beasley. — Bernama
