Can’t touch the Dutch

Too powerful: Malaysia’s Mohd Shah Firdaus competing against Holland’s Harrie Lavreysen in the last 16 of the sprint event. — AFP

PETALING JAYA: The towering Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland from Holland are the equivalent of Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt in track cycling. Fast, powerful and unstoppable.

It’s also the reason why Malaysian track cyclists Azizulhasni Awang and Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom gave up on the sprint event yesterday to conserve their energy for the first-round action in their last event keirin tomorrow.

Azizul and Shah Firdaus had to go through the repechage process after they lost to Dutch rivals Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen in the last 16 of the sprint at the Izu Velodrome.

Azizul and Japan’s Yuta Wakimoto both lost to defending Olympic champion Jason Kenny of Britain in the first repechage heat.

Shah Firdaus also bowed out in the same manner as he failed to get the better of France’s Sebastien Vigier and New Zealand’s Sam Webster in the second repechage heat.

With the Malaysians and Japanese out of contention, there were no Asian representatives in the last eight.

Hoogland and Lavreysen, who had already won a gold from the team sprint, will bid to make it an all-Dutch final affair when they take on Denis Dmitriev of Russia and Jack Carlin of Britain in the semi-finals today.

Careful now: Azizulhasni Awang is attended to by coach John Beasley after falling before competing in a heat of the men’s sprint. — AFP

Azizul admitted that the Dutch duo, who both broke the Olympics record in sprint qualifying on Wednesday, are the strongest in the competition so far.

“We do not have the horsepower to catch them at the moment when it comes to sprint,” said Azizul.

“In fact, Chris Hoy, who dominated the Olympics track cycling competition before, himself has mentioned that he was not sure if he would win if he was racing against these guys in sprint.

“Today our plan was to try our best to beat the top contenders. In the repechage, we didn’t want to waste our energy.

“It would be tiring if we go through the repechage as we then need to go through at least two more quarter-final heats and probably would be facing the Dutch cyclists again.

“We want to save our best for the keirin.

“It’s a different scenario in the keirin as it is a tactical fight where we have a better chance to get the medal,” said Azizul, the keirin bronze medallist at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Despite losing, Azizul was happy with his performance in the sprint yesterday.

“Some of the cyclists who did better than me in the qualifying did not make it to the last 16. I did. Now to focus on the next race.”