Saturday, August 4, 2012

Kenny challenge for Azizul in quarters

IF Azizulhasni thought qualifying for the quarter-finals was hard, the "PocketRocketman" will have to produce something extraordinary on Sunday to advance to the last four.

Failing to qualify directly resulted in Azizul having to navigate through the repechage on Saturday and his reward - a showdown with Britain's Jason Kenny, the raging favourite for the sprint gold medal.

Kenny, picked ahead of defending champion Chris Hoy - who beat Azizul at the same stage of the sprint in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, showed he was a worthy replacement by setting a new Olympic record of 9.713 in the ranking round on Saturday.

Azizul had to qualify through the repechage after he was beaten by Russia's Denis Dmitriev in the second round but prevailed in the losers pool, where he had Japan's Seiichiro Nakagawa and Hersony Canelon of Venezuela for company.

Azizulhasni Awang is at the same stage he was in Beijing - in the sprint quarter-finals.
"It would have been easier had I beaten the Russian but a momentary lapse in concentration, when his bike wobbled, saw him edging ahead at the finish line," said Azizul.

Kenny lost the Beijing 2008 final to Hoy and will be looking to make up for that but Azizul said he wasn't worried about the Brit.

"All I can do now is review his past races and figure out the best strategy. The sprint is all about tactics and if I can get them right, then I believe I have a chance."

Earlier in the ranking round, Azizul clocked 10.226 seconds for the 11th fastest time. That saw him being drawn with China's Zhang Miao, the 2010 Asian Games champion, in the first round.

Azizul was an easy winner as he exacted revenge over the China cyclist for the Asian Championships defeat earlier this year.

Kenny easily made the quarter-finals after beating South Africa's Bernard Esterhuizen but Malaysia will be hoping that the pint-sized Azizul does produce the magic that has made him the nation's own phenom.

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