All or nothing for Azizul

IT’S time to throw caution to the wind and go for broke. And for gold.

Azizulhasni Awang must dare to take risks if he is to realise his ambition of capturing the elusive Olympic gold medal for Malaysia, says former Olympian cyclist Rizal Tisin.

The keirin competition starting at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome today is realistically Malaysia’s last chance to add to the medal count in Paris.

Unlike the sprint, the keirin is a great equaliser in track sprinting and it does not matter if a rider’s physique is small or large. Anyone can win with the right tactics.

The pint-sized Azizul, a former world keirin champion, has shown it time and again, while Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom is quite experienced too. Both have it in them to negotiate the tricky knockout stages (first round, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final).

Rizal, the only cyclist besides Azizul to have stood on the world championships podium when he took bronze in the 1km time trial in 2009 in Poland, said his former teammate was a rider who has shown he can rise to the occasion many times.

“Azizul has earned seven world championship and two Olympic medals, so he knows how to react and come out of a tough situation to make the podium. Keirin racing is a very risky event as you can’t make a mistake if you want to go far.

“Any mistake and you end up getting boxed in or worse, crashing. But this should be his last Olympic race and he is mentally strong enough to fight for the best result.

“He needs to race wisely from the start as every round is as tough as it gets at the Olympics. If he enters the final again, he is a smaller cyclist compared to the Europeans and he needs to risk it all for the gold.

“That is the difference between coming in first or settling for second or third.

“Sir Jason Kenny took a big risk in the Tokyo Olympics final three years ago and managed to win the keirin gold even though he was not the favourite at the time,” said the 40-year-old former Asian keirin champion.

Kenny stunned Australian Matthew Glaetzer when he accelerated from the start of the race to leave the other riders far behind to take home the gold.

“In the sprints, we saw Dutch cyclist Harrie Lavreysen destroying the field in qualifying. He will be very hard to beat on the straight line sprinting but then, this is keirin.”

Azizul is one of the very few riders who have managed to beat Lavreysen in a major keirin final when he grabbed the silver ahead of Lavreysen in Tokyo.

MALAYSIANS IN ACTION

TODAY

Cycling track

Men’s keirin

11.19pm: Azizulhasni Awang and Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom

RESULTS

Cycling track

Women’s sprint

Qualifying: 1. Lea Sophie Friedrich (Ger) 10.029, 2. Emma Finucane (Gbr) 10.067, 3. Ellesse Andrews (Nzl) 10.108.

Selected: 21. Nurul Izzah Izzati (Mas) 10.709.

Diving

Men’s 10m platform preliminary: 1. Cao Yuan (Chn) 500.15pts, 2. Rikuto Tamai (Jap) 497.15, 3. Rylan Wiens (Can) 485.25. Selected: 25. Bertrand Rhodict Lises (Mas) 313.70.

Golf

Women’s individual

Leading second round scores: 136: Morgane Metraux (Sui) 70-66; 137: Yin Ruoning (Chn) 72-65; 139: Lydia Ko (Nzl) 72-67; 140: Mariajo Uribe (Col) 70-70, Pia Babnik (Slo) 74-66; 141: Atthaya Thitikul (Tha) 72-69, Celine Boutier (Fra)65-76, Miyu Yamashita (Jpn) 71-70, Ashley Buhai (Rsa) 68-73, Lin Xiyu (Chn) 71-70; Selected: 149: Ashley Lau 72-77.