KUALA LUMPUR: National track cycling team head coach (sprints) Harnizam Basri has warned that the men's keirin at the Shanghai World Championships will be no walk in the park for Azizulhasni Awang despite the withdrawal of sprint world record holder Matthew Richardson.
Harnizam said Azizulhasni's path to the podium in the keirin, which will be held tomorrow, is still tricky as he will have to navigate a field eager to secure their first qualification points for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
The Shanghai world meet marks the start of the Olympic qualifying window for LA 2028.
"As we all know, the keirin is a very open competition," said Harnizam when contacted in Shanghai today.
"The opportunity to finish on the podium is always there but you have to remember that everybody here is in their best form.
"They all want to clinch their first (qualification) points for the Olympics.
"It is still a tough field (even without Richardson). Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) is here and we also have other top riders like Nicholas Paul (Trinidad and Tobago), Leigh Hoffman (Australia) and Ryan Helal (France).
"But we all know what Azizulhasni is like. He will take it one round at a time."
British Cycling yesterday confirmed that Richardson had been withdrawn from the competition though did not disclose the reason.
A media report earlier this week, however, alleged that Richardson had been accused of serious misconduct.
Richardson is currently the fastest cyclist on the planet over 200 metres. He clocked 8.857 seconds - the current world record - at the Konya Nations Cup last year.
He was expected to continue his rivalry with Lavreysen, who won four gold at last year's Santiago World Championships, at the Shanghai Velodrome.
On a separate note, Harnizam said he was pleased with his riders' performances in the women's team sprint event today.
Izzah Izzati Asri, Nur Alyssa Farid and Aliana Azizan clocked 48.366 seconds to place 11th from 18 nations in the qualifying round at the Shanghai Velodrome. Only the top-eight advanced to the first round.
They were the second-fastest Asian team after China (45.912s) though were three-tenths of a second off the new national record (48.023s) which they set en route to winning silver at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games a fortnight ago, together with alternate rider Anis Amira Rosidi.
"For the women's team sprint, I am happy with their performance because our target was to be in the top-12 and they achieved that. We have to be realistic at this level," he said.
"For the men's team sprint, Akmal Nazimi (Jusena) suffered a crash during training three days ago and was injured.
"We replaced him with Shah Firdaus Sahrom and had to switch around the position of the riders. With limited training together, this was the best they could achieve."
The men's team sprint event saw Shah, his younger brother Ridwan and Fadhil Zonis clocking 44.815 seconds to place 16th from 19 nations in qualifying.
Besides Azizulhasni, Izzah and Alyssa will also see action in women's individual sprint event tomorrow.
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