KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — Former Sepang International Circuit (SIC) chief executive officer Datuk Razlan Razali secured the presidency of the Kuala Lumpur Cycling Association (KLCA) uncontested during their annual general meeting here, today.

Taking over from Datuk Saniboey Ismail, the former CryptoDATA RNF Racing MotoGP Team Principal will hold the top position at KLCA for two terms until 2026.

Upon assuming the role of KLCA’s new leader, Razlan pledged to leverage his extensive experience in motorsports to secure corporate sponsorships as he aimed to restore the association to its former glory of the 1980s.

“So the first thing that I will focus on is to get the sponsorship for KLCA to be financially stable and sustainable. That’s the biggest challenge for me, and I’m ready for it.

“A lot of potential sponsors and companies are in Kuala Lumpur. I will try to connect brands to KLCA, and increase the awareness of the cycling community,” he told reporters after the meeting.

Razlan said developing young talents will also become his immediate priority to ensure that Kuala Lumpur will produce good cyclists ahead of the 2024 Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Sarawak, this August.

In another development, Razlan said he will have talks with the developer, Dupion Development Sdn Bhd, which is also the owner of the land of Kuala Lumpur Velodrome in Cheras, for future plans of the iconic venue.

“Datuk Ng Joo Ngan (Kuala Lumpur cycling coach) still uses the velodrome as a training base. In terms of direction of where it’s going, I’m not sure just yet...so I will have a meeting with that party and see how we can improve on it in terms of maintenance and so on,” he said.

Based on previous media reports, Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) had sold the 4.8-hectare area to the developer and the last time a competition was organised at this venue was in March, 2017 before it was closed for demolition to make way for the construction of commercial projects.

Meanwhile, Firdaus Arshad won the KLCA deputy president uncontested while Ramlan@Ramdzam Mohd Said and Leong Kit Chuan also won the vice president posts unopposed. — Bernama