KUALA LUMPUR: National riders Izzah Izzati Asri and Nur Alyssa Farid found the going tough in the women's keirin at the Shanghai World Championships today.
Both riders were unable to make it past the first round repechage at the Shanghai Velodrome on Chongming Island.
Izzah finished third in her first round heat behind Asian Games gold medallist Yuan Liying (China) and eventual winner Alina Lysenko (Russia). Only the top two advanced to the quarter-finals.
Alyssa crashed in her opening round race but was back for her repechage heat, finishing fifth in the latter.
Izzah placed sixth in her tough repechage group, which saw Olympic champion Ellesse Andrews (New Zealand) coming in first with Hetty van de Wouw - the individual sprint world champion last year - taking second.
Lysenko went on to win the final with Germany's Sophie Lea Friedrich and Great Britain's Emma Finucane settling for silver and bronze.
The national squad has thus concluded its campaign at the world meet.
It has been a busy year for Malaysian riders which saw them competing in the UCI World Cup Series, Tagaytay Asian Championships, Glasgow Commonwealth Games as well as the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, the latter just a fortnight ago.
The next major assignment for the squad will be the Asian Championships which will be held at the National Velodrome in Nilai on Jan 31-Feb 6.
© New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd