He’s not Wan to lose hope in quest to win elusive road race gold

WAN Abdul Rahman Hamdan earned his redemption after bagging the men’s criterium gold medal for Terengganu at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Sendayan, Negri Sembilan.

The 23-year-old missed out on the podium in the individual road race event on Thursday but it had only strengthened his resolve to get on top of the podium yesterday.

Teammate Ezzatie Fifiyana Syazwanie Shaiful had earlier claimed the women’s criterium gold medal and it was the motivation Rahman needed to complete a day of double joy for Terengganu on the final day of road cycling competition.

He powered his way to win the 80km race after collecting 19 points.

Johor’s Zulhelmi Zainal picked up the silver medal with 14 points while the bronze medal went to Perak’s Mohd Yusri Shaari (9). Ezzatie collected 14 points to emerge victorious in the 50km women’s criterium contest while Selangor’s Nurqadrina Emylia Norzali picked up the silver with nine points and Yeong Zhen Yi of Federal Territories settled for the bronze medal with also nine points following a photo finish.

Rahman, who is competing in his last Sukma, said Terengganu riders were under pressure as they had not won an individual gold after three days of competition.

“It’s the last day and we had only won the men’s team title, so we were under pressure to win in the criterium today,” he said.

“We know riders from Johor are the favourites as they had prepared well the last four years. We had a tough battle during the race but I kept urging my teammates to not give up even when we were trailing.

“We managed to keep ahead of Johor riders and collected enough points to win the race in the end,” he said.

Rahman will shift his focus to the track cycling competition starting from tomorrow at the National Velodrome in Nilai.

“We won three golds from the road events, which is a good result and I hope we can contribute more golds from the track events,” added Rahman, who will compete in the track endurance events.