Azizulhasni unfazed by new faces on road to LA 2028
KUALA LUMPUR: Track cycling great Azizulhasni Awang is aware that there are plenty of promising young riders emerging on the global stage as he looks to compete in his sixth and final edition of the Olympics at Los Angeles 2028.
KUALA LUMPUR - Track cycling star Azizulhasni Awang remains undeterred by the emergence of young talents on the Olympic road as he prepares for his sixth and final Games in Los Angeles 2028. Recently, he was defeated by 22-year-old Great Britain's Harry Ledingham-Horn in the men's individual sprint race at the Shanghai World Championships.
Ledingham-Horn is part of a new generation of promising riders, which includes Russian Nikita Kiriltsev, 21, Australians Daniel Barber (23) and Ryan Tayte (20), as well as China's Li Zhiwei (22) and Xie Han (21).
The keirin specialist currently holds the world No. 9 ranking in the UCI elite sprint rankings, which takes into account both his performances in the keirin and individual sprint events. Azizulhasni is confident about his abilities and dismisses the new faces as a challenge. "Yes, he is among the newcomers with high potential. There are actually a lot of newcomers like him," he stated.
However, Azizulhasni is not overly concerned about the defeat, as his recent season has been particularly intense with back-to-back competitions.
He acknowledges that the world rankings combine points from both the keirin and individual sprint events, making it difficult to gauge his level accurately. In the upcoming season, he hopes to have a less busy schedule to focus on specific events and better assess his performance. Despite his advancing age, Azizulhasni had his best-ever season this year, winning two keirin gold medals, two keirin bronze medals, a Glasgow Commonwealth Games keirin gold, and a keirin gold and individual sprint bronze at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games.
Over two decades in the sport, he has faced at least three different generations of riders, including Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny, Gregory Bauge, Francois Pervis, Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands), and Matthew Richardson (Great Britain). The next significant competition for Azizulhasni will be the Asian Championships in Nilai from January 31 to February 6, offering valuable ranking points for Olympic qualification.
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