COMMON sense will prevail in head coach John Beasley's decision on which rider will take up the country's sole slot in the men's sprint and keirin at the London Olympics.
The World Championships in Melbourne on April 4-8 will be where Azizulhasni Awang and Josiah Ng need to perform in order to make the flight to London in July.
Despite earlier reports suggesting Josiah, 32, calling for a duel between Azizul and himself to decide who goes to the Olympics, Beasley and team manager Datuk Naim Mohamad are having none of that.
With Josiah winning the Asian Cycling Championships keirin gold medal ahead of Azizul at the Kuala Lumpur Velodrome yesterday, Beasley described the current situation as "a coin toss" between the two, who seem to be at similar level.
Naim revealed a more neutral form of selection, based on performance over the past two years and merit, has been put in place with the final call being Beasley's.
"Well, it is going to be a good problem for the country but a big problem for me," said Beasley.
"But I assure everyone that the rider who's going to the Olympics will be the best who I feel will be able to give us the best results.
"For now, the best measure would be the World Championships because there we will see how they perform against all the best riders in the world, which will be just about the same field at the Olympics.
"So, we'll look at how they both perform there and that will help with the final decision."
Naim said the call for a duel has been put to bed with both riders told to prove themselves in competition.
"I don't think a duel between them will show which rider can perform in actual competition. But anyway, that's in the past. We've drawn up a selection criteria based on facts and statistics," said Naim.
"We will review the reports and statistics on which of them has been more consistent in the drive for Olympic qualification. After that, it will be Beasley's decision.
"Azizul may be the more popular choice, but we cannot disregard Josiah. The federation will be fair on this. We cannot go by popularity, the same way we never agreed to Josiah's call for a duel.
"It has to be based on performance and which rider Beasley feels will deliver the best results for us at the Olympics."
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