UCI WORLD CUP: Double delight in Beijing By : Arnaz M. Khairul

Azizul Hasni Awang

Rizal Tisin

THE Negaraku was played an unprecedented two times at the Laoshan Velodrome in Beijing yesterday thanks to Azizul Hasni Awang and Rizal Tisin registering the country's first double haul of UCI World Cup gold medals.

World No 1 Azizul, riding for the BT Australia team this time, delivered an overwhelming performance, winning every heat including the star-studded keirin final for his second successive UCI World Cup gold medal.

The repeat of Azizul's historic first gold medal at Round Two of the World Cup in Melbourne in November, came with a bonus of the World Cup leader's jersey he swept off the back of Frenchman Francois Pervis.

This was just reward for Azizul, as the gold medal also came as redemption at the same track on which he committed a tactical error to miss out on the Olympics keirin final last August.

It was a case of being relegated to second twice in a day for Frenchman Pervis.
In the 1km time trial, Rizal held back pain in his right hand to upstage the Frenchman for the gold, taking his surprise first ever World Cup medal in a time of 1:02.268s, which was just short of his 1:02.157s Asian record set in Australia last month.

Cofidis rider Pervis clocked 1:02.642s to finish second ahead of Poland's Kamil Kuczynski who clocked 1:03.020s.

Azizul's day of glory came sweet as he achieved it via a final which included France's Gregory Bauge (second), Teun Mulder of the Netherlands (third), New Zealand's Simon Van Velthooven, American Travis Smith of the Hawk Relay team and Australia's Shane Perkins.

A determined Rizal, 24, said he had nothing to lose and just pulled himself together to focus on his one mission right from the moment he woke up yesterday morning.

"Nothing else mattered and my mind was just set on riding all out to the death in my heat. I really wanted the medal, but I did not expect the gold," said Rizal.

"We knew the track temperatures would be low, thus the times would be slow. So, to get a time so close to my personal best was also quite a good feeling."

Former keirin World No 1 Josiah Ng, riding for the national team, fell flat of expectations when he finished fifth in his first round heat and also failed to progress via the repechage.

Teenager Fatehah Mustapa continued her rise on the world stage with a creditable eighth place in the 500m time trial, with a time of 36.284s, which was just a shade off her national record of 36.155s set at last year's Asian Championships.

It was, however, a time that left the 19-year-old with more work to do as it was a far cry from the 33.834s set by Lithuania's Simona Krupeckaite, who won the gold ahead of China's Gong Jinjie who clocked 34.941s.