PETALING JAYA: An overseas stint is in the works for road cyclist Noor Azian Alias, who is on the brink of gaining automatic qualification for the Beijing Olympics in August.
Noor Azian is ranked 85th in the latest UCI rankings for female road rider and has a chance to make history as the first Malaysian woman to qualify for Olympic cycling.
The Olympic qualifying rules state that each of the National Olympic Council with an athlete among the top 100 in the individual road world rankings by May 31 will receive one place. This does not include those ranked among the top 15, who will earn automatic qualification for their respective countries.
The qualifiers will be adjusted accordingly in order not to exceed the maximum of 64 riders and with each country having a maximum of two riders.
The Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) deputy president, Datuk Naim Mohamad, said the objective was to qualify for the team sprint and Noor Azian's current position came as a pleasant surprise.
“We are looking at four to five races, probably in southern France and Spain, to help her collect ranking points. It should be sometime in April and May because the weather will not be so cold then,” he said.
Meanwhile, the national sprint team, are also on the verge of automatic qualification for the first time in history. They are now ranked 10th in the world track list.
The top 10 ranked countries in team sprint after the World Championships in Manchester later this month qualify for Beijing.
Qualifying for the team sprint will hand Malaysia one extra spot for the individual keirin and sprint respectively.
The sprint cyclists team is led by Josiah Ng. The other cyclists in training are Azizul Hasni Awang, Mohd Edrus Yunos, Junaidi Nasir and Rizal Tisin.
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