ALARM bells rang at the opening round of the National Track Championships at Kuala Lumpur Velodrome yesterday, but it wasn't due to the heavy rain which forced the postponement of the evening events.
Uracca Leow, who stopped training full-time since the beginning of the year to focus on studies, still proved she was the best in the country over the 3km individual pursuit, but her winning time of four minutes 20.700 seconds, which was way off her national record of 3:50.891s set at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, must have raised some concern.The 23-year-old won the gold medal with ease, way ahead of Selangor's national back-up trainee Nurul Ahmar Badeuzzaman, who clocked 4:32.615s in the final, raising more questions over where the women's endurance squad was heading.Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) competitions committee chairman Maniam Manikkam called for calm, stating that this was the very reason why such measures as the organising of the inaugural national series was done."There is no use complaining or making an issue out of this. We realised the problem and one of our main objectives of not just this series, but the increased number of track competitions for the age groups as well as the elite riders this year is to address these problems," said Maniam.
"We are struggling to maintain a solid women's squad and we admit that. But it isn't like we're not taking measures to improve the situation."The under-18 girls' 200m sprint final brought no surprises with both national back-up squad trainees under coach Fairoz Izni Abdul Ghani making the final.But Zahraa Anuwar this time had an edge over the usually powerful Jupha Somnet, with the final ending in a straight match sprint to the former.In the much awaited boys' under-18 200m sprint, Kedah's regional centre trainee Mohd Hazmir Azeman gained a huge psychological advantage when he turned in an 11.468 seconds flying lap to emerge as the surprise fastest qualifier ahead of a string of favourites led by Mohd Arfy Qhairant Amran of Malacca, the dominant force in the SportExcel National Junior Circuit this year. The other favourite, Kedah's Farhan Amri Zaid, was only the third fastest qualifier with a time of 11.946s. But the knockout stages, scheduled to be held last night, were postponed to today due to heavy rain.
Uracca Leow, who stopped training full-time since the beginning of the year to focus on studies, still proved she was the best in the country over the 3km individual pursuit, but her winning time of four minutes 20.700 seconds, which was way off her national record of 3:50.891s set at the 2006 Doha Asian Games, must have raised some concern.The 23-year-old won the gold medal with ease, way ahead of Selangor's national back-up trainee Nurul Ahmar Badeuzzaman, who clocked 4:32.615s in the final, raising more questions over where the women's endurance squad was heading.Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) competitions committee chairman Maniam Manikkam called for calm, stating that this was the very reason why such measures as the organising of the inaugural national series was done."There is no use complaining or making an issue out of this. We realised the problem and one of our main objectives of not just this series, but the increased number of track competitions for the age groups as well as the elite riders this year is to address these problems," said Maniam.
"We are struggling to maintain a solid women's squad and we admit that. But it isn't like we're not taking measures to improve the situation."The under-18 girls' 200m sprint final brought no surprises with both national back-up squad trainees under coach Fairoz Izni Abdul Ghani making the final.But Zahraa Anuwar this time had an edge over the usually powerful Jupha Somnet, with the final ending in a straight match sprint to the former.In the much awaited boys' under-18 200m sprint, Kedah's regional centre trainee Mohd Hazmir Azeman gained a huge psychological advantage when he turned in an 11.468 seconds flying lap to emerge as the surprise fastest qualifier ahead of a string of favourites led by Mohd Arfy Qhairant Amran of Malacca, the dominant force in the SportExcel National Junior Circuit this year. The other favourite, Kedah's Farhan Amri Zaid, was only the third fastest qualifier with a time of 11.946s. But the knockout stages, scheduled to be held last night, were postponed to today due to heavy rain.
RESULTS (all finals): Boys' Under-15 -- 200m sprint: Mohd Farhanis Ishak (Sel) bt Muhd Sayuti Ramli (Ter) 2-0; Bronze: Azri Ahmad (Ter) bt Amirul Fahmi Azman (Sel) 2-0; Girls' Under-18 -- 200m sprint: Zahraa Anuwar (NSC-Pah) bt Jupha Somnet (NSC-Per) 2-0; Bronze: Nurain Mahmood (BPSS) bt Siti Nursyahirah Zainol (ASZU-Pen) walkover;Open --
3km individual pursuit: 1 Uracca Leow (Sel) 4:20.700s, 2 Nurul Ahmar Badeuzzaman (NSC-Sel) 4:32.615s, 3 Masziyaton Mohd Radzi (Ked) 4:38.673s
5 comments:
congratss
Thank you...but it isnt good and i really need to get fir by August
Hey Congrats, Uracca!
Ah Chai sent me this link to ur blog. Glad to see the pic I took of you at the Airshow Criterium in ur blog! But it looks blur lah ... Gimme ur email and I'll send u a higher res image to replace it, ok? Good luck in your future races! Take care yeah!
thank you Calvin
proud of Uracca~~!!
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