FIGHTING off illness, Azizulhasni Awang did just enough to tie break into the top 10 of the UCI World Cup keirin rankings after an eighth place finish in the final round in London on Saturday night.
The three-time World Cup keirin champion struggled against a fever that hit him upon arrival in chilly London on Tuesday and admitted he wasn't on top of his game in the event that he expected much more from.
Azizulhasni, 24, failed to get through his opening round heat after finishing behind Teun Mulder of the Netherlands and had to go through the repechage rounds to make the second round.
The same fate struck newly-crowned Asian keirin champion Josiah Ng in the first round when he only managed third spot in his heat behind France's Mickael Bourgain and Australia's Matthew Glaetzer.
The repechage saw Azizulhasni breeze to victory in his heat against Japan's Yuddai Nitta, Sergio Aliaga of Spain and Bernard Esterhuizen of South Africa.
Josiah was involved in a crash with Ireland's Eoin Mullen, allowing Britain's Matthew Crampton to cruise to victory and take the second round spot from their repechage heat.
"I was very excited to be drawn against Chris Hoy in my second round heat, but then a crash happened in front of me with a lap to go and I was stuck there. There was nothing I could do," said Azizulhasni.
Reigning world and Olympic champion Hoy booked his spot in the final by winning that second round heat ahead of Mulder and Rene Enders of Germany.
Hoy eventually went on to win the gold medal ahead of Enders and Bourgain in the final, while Azizulhasni finished just behind Germany's Joachim Eilers to take eighth spot in the seventh-12th classification race.
The points were sufficient to move Azizulhasni into 10th spot in the World Cup keirin rankings, tied on nine points with Josiah who is eighth and Japan's Kazunari Watanabe who is ninth.
"I was feeling sick and it was quite uncomfortable since we arrived here. The sudden change in weather from the extreme heat in Kuala Lumpur to the cold in London affected me," said Azizulhasni.
"In my second round heat I was knocked by a German rider so hard that my wheel broke, but luckily I managed to finish."
Azizulhasni was down for the 200m sprint qualifying late yesterday, where he was determined to put his illness aside and put himself in line for a medal.
In the women's 200m sprint qualifying on Saturday, newly crowned Asian women's keirin champion Fatehah Mustapa posted her personal best time of 11.571s, which is a new national record, but in ranking 24th it put her out of the knockout stages reserved for the top 16.
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