Azizulhasni Awang - OCM
PETALING JAYA: National track cyclist Azizulhasni Awang shattered the national record en route to reaching the second round of the men's sprint event at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Wednesday.
The 36-year-old came back strongly to beat German Luca Spiegel from behind in the first round of the knockout stage.
Azizul earlier had romped to the 10th fastest time in 9.402s in the qualifying round, thus improving on his 200 flying lap national record of 9.523s set en route to winning the gold in the event at the Asian Championships in Nilai last year.
Azizul's qualifying time was the fastest by an Asian cyclist until Hangzhou Asian Games double champion Ota Kaiya blazed the track with a 9.350s moments later.
Another Japanese cyclist Yuta Wakimoto held the previous Asian record of 9.518s, which he did at the Olympic Games in Tokyo three years ago.
It was truly a scorching qualifying session with Australian Matthew Richardson the first to break the world record set by Trinidad and Tobago's Paul Nicholas back in 2019.
Richardson clocked 9.091s to beat the existing mark of 9.100s set by Nicholas at high altitude in Bolivia.
But it did not last long. Flying Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen then clocked a searing 9.088s to top the timesheets in qualification.
Lavreysen is the defending Olympic champion for the event and the 27-year-old showed he meant business after leading the Dutch men's team sprint trio to gold in a new world record time on Tuesday.
Mohd Shah Firdaus also made it to the knockout rounds with a new personal best time of 9.635s to place 22nd fastest.
Only the top 24 cyclists from qualifying advanced to the knockout rounds.
But Shah Firdaus lost to Israel's M. Iakovlev in the first round and will have to fight back through the repecharge.
Meanwhile, young track cyclist Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri missed out on a chance to reach the women's keirin quarter-finals after finishing fourth in her first round heat won by Britain's Emma Finucane.
