Not the best day for national cyclist Azizulhasni Awang as the Pocket Rocketman failed to retain his gold medal in the men’s keirin elite event during the 2016 Asia Cycling Championship (ACC) in Shizouka, Japan yesterday.
Azizulhasni was defeated by South Korea’s Chaebin Im and China’s Choa Xu to claim third place with total time record of 10.371s.
The track specialist, whom won the gold medal in the previous edition held in Korat, attributed his lost to the wrong use of strategy and claimed that both he and his compatriot Muhd Shah Firdaus Sahrom struggled to find their space since the start of the race.
“After that, I started following two Japanese riders (Kazunari Watanabe and Yuka Wakimoto) with hopes that they would be able to open up some space for me when we were almost in final lap,” said Terengganu born cyclist as quoted from Utusan.
“However, my expectations were far from accurate. The two Japanese riders weren’t giving space and ended up letting Chaebin sprint faster.”
“So, I had to open up and made my last sprint towards the finish line and ended up with a bronze medal.”
Despite his defeat, the 28 year-old vows to step up his performance in the individual sprint race tomorrow.
Shah Firdaus on the other hand capped his win at number four, followed by the hosts Watanabe and Wakimoto.
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