Elite track cyclists to stay away from SEA Games

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will not send their elite track cyclists for the Indonesia SEA Games in November although a clean sweep of the gold medals in the men’s event is possible.
With elite cyclists like Azizulhasni Awang, Josiah Ng and Rizal Tisin in their ranks, it won’t take much for Malaysia to dominate the proceedings.

But the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) prefer more challenging tasks for their riders.
MNCF deputy president Datuk Naim Mohamad also felt the same, adding that he strongly supported Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek’s suggestion that athletes for the Road to London programme focused on the 2012 Olympics than participating in the SEA Games.

Naim, in fact, prefers to use the SEA Games as a platform to expose the back-up riders.
“Cyclists who excel at the SEA Games should then move on to higher continental and world competitions. We should send our back-up riders to the SEA Games and let our elite cyclists focus on qualifying for the Olympics.

Naim pointed out that the SEA Games, to be held from Nov 11-20, would clash with the World Cup meets in Australia and Colombia for the 2011-2012 season.

“These two World Cup meets offer valuable qualifying points towards the Olympics. The qualifying process has already started and we are working hard to meet the objectives of getting representation in all the sprint disciplines on the track,” he said.

Track cycling was last held at the Korat SEA Games four years ago, with Malaysia bagging all four gold medals in the sprint disciplines.



Star