BEIJING, Aug 17 (Bernama) -- National cyclist Azizulhasni Awang survived tough competition Sunday to sneak into the quarterfinals of the Olympics men's sprint, in his last event.
But the pint-sized 20-year-old faces a formidable opponent in the last eight scheduled for Monday evening. He will race against Chris Hoy, gold winner in a 1-2 finish by Great Britain in the Keirin event Saturday.
Unless Azizulhasni upsets Hoy, he will find himself racing for fifth to eighth place on Tuesday.
Azizulhasni timed the seventh fastest of 10.272s in the qualifying round to pick 18 riders from 21 contenders for the first round.
"His seventh ranking is already a good result and Malaysia should be proud that he made the quarterfinals. He will have a tough race tomorrow but it will not be based on power alone; strategy will play a role and riders can make mistakes," said team manager Abu Samah Wahab.
In the first round, Azizulhasni was beaten by defending champion Ryan Bayley of Australia but the Malaysian was back in business in staving off Tsubasa Kitatsuru of Japan and Lukasz Kwiatkowski of Poland in the repechage with a time of 10.959s.
In the second round, British rider Kenny Jason outpowered Azizulhasni, forcing the Malaysian back into a repechage.
Despite being stretched over four races, he hung on grittily to edge Stefan Nimke of Germany and Roberto Chiappa of Italy to win in 11.010s.
Saturday, Azizulhasni, the Asian sprint and Keirin champion, was ousted from the second round of the Keirin after a tactical blunder.
-- BERNAMA
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