Go girls: The women's team sprint trio of Nurul Aliana Syafika Azizan, Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri and Anis Amira Rosidi put up a superb show to win bronze in team sprint at the Asian Games. —S.S.Kanesan/ The Star.
HANGZHOU: Malaysia got off to a great start with the national riders contributing two bronze medals in the opening day of the track cycling competition at Chun'an Jieshou Sports Centre Velodrome.
The women's sprint trio of Nurul Aliana Syafika Azizan, Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri, Anis Amira Rosidi got their acts right in the bronze medal ride by clocking 49.025s to beat Taiwan's combination of Hsiao Mei-yu, Wang Tzu-chun, Chen Ching-yun, who posted 50.344s, on Tuesday (Sept 26).
It is only the second Asian Games medal won by Malaysia in the women's cycling competition. Fatehah Mustapa bagged silver in the keirin final at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon in 2014.
China smashed the Asian record for women's team sprint in clocking 46.376s to beat South Korea (50.012s).
The men cyclists also added joy as Umar Hasbullah, Mohd Fadhil Zonis and Mohd Ridwan Sahrom also achieved their target to claim bronze when they clocked 44.165s to beat Taiwan, who finished in 44.276s.
Japan set a new Games record of 42.934s to beat hosts China (42.968s) to the gold medal in the men's team sprint final.
