Track trio to do battle for Sea Games keirin slot
National track cycling team head coach Harnizam Basri said he will be selecting the second rider for the keirin, who will race alongside Shah Firdaus Sahrom at the Thailand Sea Games (Dec 9-20), based on their performances at the Asia Cup.
The squad will leave for the Asia Cup, which is a UCI class one event, on Monday (Aug 25).
Harnizam, however, confirmed that top riders Shah Firdaus Sahrom and Izzah Izzati Asri will not be competing at the Asia Cup.
"We have decided not to send Shah and Izzah as we want them to focus on preparations for the Santiago World Championships (Oct 22-26)," said Harnizam when contacted today (Aug 19).
"We will be sending Fadhil Zonis, Ridwan Sahrom and Akmal Jusena for the Asia Cup.
"They will compete in the men's team sprint, keirin as well as the individual sprint events.
"We will be choosing the second rider for the Sea Games keirin based on their performances at the Asia Cup, so they will have to compete with each other for that slot. It has to be earned on merit.
"For the women's team we have selected Anis Amira Rosidi, Aliana Azizan and Alyssa Farid and they will compete in the same events as the men's in Suphanburi.
"We want to gauge our performances in both the men's and women's team sprint events, especially as our men's team will be competing in the team sprint event at the Sea Games.
"It will also be Aliana's first international competition since coming back. She has been doing well in training."
Aliana spent months recovering after suffering a fractured rib and concussion after crashing in a local race in October last year.
Shah has also been on the comeback trail as he has been battling tendonitis in his right knee since February but has shown improvement in recent months.
The men's keirin and men's team sprint are the only sprint discipline events that have been included for the Thailand Sea Games this year.
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