KUALA LUMPUR: Both men's and women's national team sprint squads missed the top-eight cut for the first round at the Shanghai World Championships today.
The women's team sprint event saw Izzah Izzati Asri, Nur Alyssa Farid and Aliana Azizan clock 48.366 seconds to place 11th from 18 nations in the qualifying round at the Shanghai Velodrome.
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.
Great Britain topped the timesheets on 45.842s.
The men's team sprint event saw Shah Firdaus Sahrom, his younger brother Ridwan and Fadhil Zonis clocking 44.815 seconds to place 16th from 19 nations in qualifying.
Defending champions the Netherlands topped the timesheets on 42.351s.
Shah, who has been focusing more on the individual sprint and keirin in recent seasons, was selected ahead of team sprint regular Akmal Jusena for the event.
Shah, who has yet to hit top form since undergoing knee surgery late last year, had not qualified to compete in the two individual events at the world championships.
Former world champion Azizulhasni Awang will take to the track for the keirin tomorrow.
The 38-year-old has been in fine form this season. He won two keirin golds and two individual sprint bronzes in the UCI World Cup series and also clinched keirin gold at both the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
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