Our cyclists to share the wheels

TWO sets of spare wheel rims were lost in transit when the Malaysian track cycling team arrived in Doha from Melbourne via Kuala Lumpur two days ago. But coach John Beasley is not about to press the panic button. 

“We have not received word on whether we will get our wheels. One set is for the sprint guys while the other is for the 4km pursuit team,” said Beasley yesterday. 

“The only thing we can do is just to share what we have. We still have a few days more to go and we may have to fly in replacements from Kuala Lumpur.” 

Other than the missing rims, it is all systems go for the track cyclists, who are looking forward to the start of the competition on Dec 9. 

The track cyclists started training at the indoor velodrome at Aspire Hall 1 in Sports City after a one-day break for the opening ceremony. The Olympic finalist in keirin, Josiah Ng, carried the Malaysian flag during the opening ceremony on Friday. 

“The cyclists have maintained their training programme on the same level in Melbourne over the last two months. They have not tapered down even in the last few days before we left for Doha,” said Beasley. “They have taken on the challenge well and I believe we are going to bring in some results this time.” 

The Australian is expecting the medals to come from the men’s cyclists but reckons it would be tougher for women’s cyclists Uracca Leow and Noor Azian Alias. 

“We should be getting some medals this time. The sprint cyclists (Josiah, Junaidi Nasir and Rizal Tisin) have been doing some good times. 

“We did not expect the 4km pursuit team to have any chance when they started out two months ago but after what they achieved in the World Cup, they look capable of fighting for a medal. 

“Hafiz Sufian also has a chance to get an individual medal in the 1km time trial after breaking his national record again in the Oceania Championships just a week ago.” 

The 4km team pursuit is made up of new additions to the team. Amir Mustapha, Mohd Akmal Amrun, Hariff Salleh and Jasmin Ruslan established a new national record of 4:23.865 in the opening round of the Track World Cup in Sydney. 

The previous national record of 4:24.965 was set by the quartet of Mohd Sayuti Zahit, Fauzan Lufti, Thum Weng Kin and Jasmin Ruslan in the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March. However, Fauzan and Sayuti were dropped from the team for disciplinary problems. 

The 20-year-old Hafiz is also in fine form after improving on his national record of 1:06.064 set in the Commonwealth Games. 

Hafiz did a blistering lap of 1:05.924 in the Oceania Championships and his latest effort puts him in the top three ranked Asian cyclists. 

Malaysia had a silver to show from cycling through Josiah in the sprint event in Busan four years ago. It was the first medal in 32 years since Ng Joo Ngan and Daud Ibrahim delivered one gold each in the 1970 Asian Games in Bangkok.