Only riders who deliver on international stage to be considered
THE two Olympic slots for road cycling events will justly be given to riders who collectively delivered all the points that brought about Malaysia's historic qualification in the first place.It will be a fair selection, national cycling head coach John Beasley said, and only results from UCI-sanctioned international races will be taken into account and not local races.
This aptly puts an end to the much criticised selection process of the Malaysian National Cycling Federation' s (MNCF) road programme and their nonsensical selection races, which Beasley described as "easily manipulated".
"Local races don't provide a true indication because one team like Terengganu can enter a whole lot of riders and they can control the race, so for sure the result will be in their favour," said Beasley.
Though those in charge of the MNCF road programme have continuously claimed credit for Olympic qualification, the bulk of the points were delivered by Malaysians riding for UCI Continental and Professional Continental teams.
It is these riders who scored points, accumulated since the 2010-2011 season, that brought about Olympic qualification.
Beasley said Adiq Husainie Othman, who starts Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) tomorrow alongside Anuar Manan in the Champion System team, is likely to fill one of the slots based on the consistency of his results in international races.
Adiq Husainie last week won a silver medal in the Under-23 Asian Cycling Championships road race and Beasley describes him as the best road cyclist in the country at the moment.
The remaining slot is then up to riders who have a proper programme comprising international races and thus this now means those registered with UCI Continental teams or higher, who have such programmes drawn up by their teams.
These include the likes of Anuar, Ng Yong Li, who rides for Iranian team Azad University, Amir Mustafa Rusli with Australia's Drapac Pro Cycling and the Terengganu Cycling Team duo of brothers Harrif and Zamri Salleh.
"I think Zamri has been performing very consistently. If you look at local races he's always there. But we have to consider how they perform in international races," said Beasley.
Beasley indicated that unless the national road programme manages to get the national team into international races, riders under their care will not have a chance to prove themselves.
The national road programme recently failed to respond to an invitation from the organisers of the Tour of Taiwan, which Beasley sees as a wasted opportunity.
"I don't think, when the time comes, anybody can argue on the selection of the rider to fill the other slot because it is going to be based on results," said Beasley.
Tomorrow, 14 Malaysian riders start Le Tour de Langkawi, one of the races Beasley will be looking at closely.
No comments:
Post a Comment