PETALING JAYA: Track cyclist Azizulhasni Awang's hopes of giving long serving coach John Beasley the perfect send-off received a boost with the confirmation that Britain's star sprinter Matthew Richardson has been sent home from the ongoing World Championships in Shanghai.
British Cycling on Wednesday (Oct 14) confirmed that the double Paris Olympic silver medallist had been withdrawn from the competition but did not disclose the reason.
A media report earlier this week, however, alleged that Richardson had been accused of serious misconduct.
Richardson, who is the world record holder over 200m sprint, acknowledged his withdrawal and said he will cooperate with procedures taken by British Cycling.
His omission from the meet thus opens up the competition especially in the men's keirin event, which Azizul is scheduled to race today.
The 38-year-old Pocket Rocketman is the only Malaysian to qualify for the men's keirin and individual sprint for the world meet, which kicks off the 2028 Los Angeles Olympic qualifying campaign.
Cycling head coach Harnizam Basri said Azizul has a fighting chance to win his first World Championships medal since 2020 if he can get into the main final.
"His focus will be to make it into the final first. The challenge for the Asian cyclists to perform at the world meet here is tougher as we have just finished the Asian Games two weeks ago while the Europeans are on fresh legs,'' said Harnizam.
"Everybody, not just Azizul, will be all fired up to give John the farewell he deserves for what he has done for the Malaysian cycling team all these years.
"It's very tough though to be on the podium as Olympic qualification points are at stake," he said.
The world meet this week is the final assignment for Beasley with the national track cycling team.
The Australian, who served as the head coach from 2006 to 2024 before taking over as the technical director, is leaving to take up a new coaching role in Japan after this.
Despite the absence of Richardson, the field is still very competitive.
Reigning Olympic champion Harrie Lavreysen, who claimed four gold medals at last year's world meet in Santiago, remains the overwhelming favourite to win both the individual sprint and keirin.
Azizul, despite his advancing age, has been in exceptional form and made it to the top of the podium in all the major competitions he entered for this year.
Azizul clinched two keirin gold medals in the UCI World Cup series this year, beating Richardson in the Perth final and Lavreysen in the Nilai final.
Azizul then won the Commonwealth Games keirin gold medal that has eluded him for the last two decades and bagged a third Asian Games career title in Japan two weeks ago.
The 2017 world keirin champion took time away from the sport after his Paris Olympics disappointment and did not compete in the past two editions of the world meet.
Meanwhile, the Asian Games silver medal winning trio of Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri, Nurul Aliana Syafika Azizan and Nur Alyssa Mohd Farid narrowly missed out on a place in the first round of the women's team sprint event.
The trio placed 10th in qualifying with a decent time of 48.366s with only the top eight nations advancing.
Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom, Mohd Ridwan Sahrom and Mohd Fadhil Zonis finished 16th in the men's team sprint qualifying (44.815s).
