Azizul misses out on sprint quarter-finals after good start

PETALING JAYA: National track cyclist Azizulhasni Awang's campaign in the men's sprint event came to an end when he lost in the last 16 repechage heat at the Paris Olympics Games.

Azizul came in third behind Mikhail Yakovlev of Israel and Rudyk Mateusz of Poland at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome on Wednesday.

Only the winner made it to the quarter-finals and the Polish rider joined Japan's Yuta Obara, who had won another repechage heat.

Earlier, Japan's Ota Kaiya; Holland's Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland; Britain's Hamish Turnbull and Jack Carlin; and Australian Matthew Richarson had qualified directly into the last eight.

Azizul had to go down to the repechage after he lost to Hoogland, who was the silver medallist behind Lavreysen in the sprint event in Tokyo three years ago.

Azizul had earlier defeated Turnbull and Luca Spiegel in the first two rounds of the knockout stage.

The 36-year-old started off brilliantly when he finished 10th fastest in the qualifying round with a time of 9.402s, and improved on his 200 flying lap national record of 9.523s which he had set en route to winning the gold at the Asian Championships in Nilai last year.

Azizul's time was the fastest by an Asian cyclist until Hangzhou Asian Games double champion 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.

Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom also had earlier qualified for the top-24 sprint first round battle when he came in 22nd but failed to proceed from there on.

Azizul and Shah Firdaus will now focus on the keirin event starting this Saturday.