It was also a satisfying campaign for Malaysia on the final day as Azizulhasni Awang continued with his remarkable comeback by finishing an impressive fifth in the men’s sprint.
Despite a tiring campaign at the Indonesia SEA Games last month, where she delivered three gold medals, a tenacious Fatehah battled on to reach the final in her pet event in what was her first World Cup meet for the year.
The 22-year-old failed to earn automatic qualification after finishing second in her first round heat and had to win the repechage to advance.
She survived the nerve-jangling repechage involving five riders and went on to book a place in the final after finishing third in the second round heat behind Lithuania’s Simona Krupeckaite and Russia’s Ekaterina Gnidenko.
Fatehah finished sixth in the final won by Krupeckaite but had the satisfaction of picking up five more points for Olympic qualification in keirin.
Malaysia were ranked 12th in the country rankings in women’s keirin prior to the meet in Cali.
Track team manager Datuk Naim Mohamad said Fatehah, who made the scratch final on Thursday, is on the right track to realising her dream to compete in the London Olympics.
Fatehah, who also reached the World Championships final in Holland early this year, won gold medals in the sprint, team sprint and 500m time trial at the SEA Games.
“It was a world class performance in making the final again and she earned good points towards Olympic qualification,” said Naim.
“Qualification is through nation rankings and the top two Asian countries in the top 16 automatically qualify for the Olympics.
“Fatehah may only need to make another final in either Beijing or London and she is on her way,” he said.
The Beijing leg of the World Cup takes place next month while London will host the fourth and final round of the season at the newly built velodrome that will host the Olympics track cycling competitions.
Azizul, who finished fifth in the men’s keirin on Friday, made significant progress in the sprint as he cleared the top 16 knockout stages for the first time in more than a year.
Azizul posted the 12th fastest time of 10.315 in qualification but Malaysian veteran Josiah Ng failed to follow suit after finishing 20th on 10.404.
Azizul overcame Michael D’Almeida of France to reach the quarter-finals but his charge for a place in the medal rounds ended with defeat to German Enders Rene.
Azizul, however, bounced back to win the fifth to eight placing shoot-out involving three other riders to cap an impressive recovery after sustaining a career threatening calf injury in Manchester in February.
THE STAR
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