Sukma stars Ridwan and Izzah to make debut in world meet

Tag team: Mohd Ridwan Sahrom goes for a high five with his brother Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom after winning the keirin gold for Johor at the Sukma.

PETALING JAYA: It pays to be successful in the Malaysia Games (Sukma) as track cycling stars Mohd Ridwan Sahrom and Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri have earned big international breaks.

Ridwan and Izzah have been selected to make their debuts in the World Championships from Oct 12-16 in Saint Quentin En Yvelines, Paris after Malaysia earned slots for the men and women’s team sprint events respectively.

The world meet will take place at the same venue for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Malaysia were on the first reserve list initially for the team events but got in due to nations not taking up the quota spots.

This allows coach John Beasley to send three men and three women for the world meet instead of two in each category.

Ridwan will thus line up with elder brother Mohd Shah Firdaus and Mohd Fadhil Zonis while Izzah will combine with Nurul Aliana Syafika Azizan and Anis Amira Rosidi.

The 21-year-old Ridwan and Izzah, 19, are coming off a highly successful Sukma campaign with impressive wins for Johor and Kedah respectively.

Ridwan bagged the keirin, 1km time trial and sprint golds but missed out on the team sprint as Perak romped to a big upset over Johor.

Izzah made a clean sweep of all four gold medals in the sprint disciplines (team sprint, sprint, keirin and 500m time trial).

Ridwan knows the world meet would be a different stage altogether.

“I’ve achieved my mission to win at Sukma, especially in the keirin, after four years of struggle and wait,” said Ridwan, who is happy that his hard work has been rewarded with the world meet slot.

“We did not stop training after Sukma because we were on the standby list for the World Championships.

“I should be the lead rider and I hope to do well to help Malaysia get a good finish among the Asian nations.

“I hope to compete in the Asian Games in Hangzhou next year and so, it’s important for me to get as much top level experience as possible,” said Ridwan.

His elder brother Sahrom will ride the individual keirin and sprint while Fadhil will compete in the men’s 1km time trial.

Both Shah Firdaus and Fadhil were silver medallists in the keirin and 1km time trial respectively at the Asian Championships in New Delhi in June.

Izzah will enter for the women’s 500m time trial while Anis will saddle up for the sprint.

Only two Malaysian cyclists have made it to the podium at the world championships.

Rizal Tisin was the first medallist when he won bronze in the 1km time trial and then Azizulhasni Awang went one step better to win the sprint silver in the 2009 edition in Poland.

Azizul, who went on to win the keirin world title in Hong Kong in 2017, is not competing this time as he is still recovering from corrective heart surgery in April.