AZIZUL Hasni Awang, who went against orders at great cost in the keirin on Saturday, fought his way into the men's sprint quarter-finals at the Laoshang Velodrome yesterday.
AZIZUL HASNI AWANG |
The reward for Azizul, the only Asian in today's last eight, is a showdown with Britain's Chris Hoy.
It is a race Azizul looks destined to lose, as Hoy already has two gold medals to his credit, but the experience that the 20-year-old Malaysian gains will be one that should spur him to aim even higher.
Racing against Hoy, who set an Olympic record of 9.815s in qualifying yesterday morning and was a runaway winner in the keirin, will be a brutal test but one that Azizul should thrive on.
After all, the double Asian champion showed just why he is rated highly when he fought his way twice through the repechage yesterday to confirm himself in the world's top eight.
Azizul clocked 10.272s in the qualifying for seventh place, just off his national record of 10.160s which he clocked in the World Championships in Manchester in March.
He was then drawn against Australia's Ryan Bailey, who having lost his keirin gold of 2004, was determined to hang on to the sprint title.
Azizul's inexperience showed again as Bailey, having allowed the Malaysian to lead, pumped up the pressure in the final lap to sail through in 10.762s.
That meant Azizul would have to come through the repechage for the last-16 stage with the nine round one winners through, leaving seven places.
He had Japan's Tsubasa Kitatsuru and Poland's Lukasz Kwiatkowski for company but Azizul, who incurred coach John Beasley's wrath when he started the keirin semi-final from behind, made no mistakes and won in 10.959s.
That took him into a last-16 showdown with Jason Kenny which the Briton won in 10.531s.
That meant another repechage round for the two remaining last eight places and a tired Azizul clocked the slowest time of his day -- 11.010s -- but that was enough to beat Stefan Nimke of Germany and Roberto Chiappa of Italy.
Hoy now beckons.
NST
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