KUALA LUMPUR: National cycling champion, Azizulhasni Awang is expected to continue competing despite being in pain for the second series of the Cycling World Cup to be held in Manchester, England this weekend.
Azizulhasni’s resilience stems from the fact that he refuses to give up nor admit defeat because he want to ensure he is able to pick up points in the individual sprint event to reinforce his position for the World Championships in the Netherlands slated for February next year.
The keirin world champion is in 22nd place of the world rankings released by the The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), with 1140 points, followed by teammate Shah Firdaus Sahrom (1069 points).
There are two ways of qualifying for the World Championships, by being ranked in the top twenty best countries of the UCI rankings or top ten individual rankings.
Malaysia are 14th in the country rankings with 2529 points which is a qualifying position for the World Championships, though there are still three series of the World Cup to go.
Last night, Azizulhasni, who is popularly known as The Pocketrocketman, was in action despite being in pain in the sprint event at the first series of the World Cup in Poland, a day after being involved in an accident during the keirin event where he injured his left ankle.
“During the warm up session, I did feel pain but I decided to take part to get valuable points for the World Championships. I am happy with the time I clocked even though I did so while carrying an injury.
“Usually such an injury like this will take between two to three weeks to recover from but because of a lack of time, we will do what we have to do to hasten the recovery process while not aggravating the injury.
“In Manchester this coming weekend, I hope to be in much better shape. I have confirmed my participation for Keirin and the individual pursuit events though it all depends on how well I am able to recover from the injury over the next few days,” he said.
The accident in the keirin event during the repecharge round saw Azizulhasni having to forgo his aim of going as far as he possibly can in the event apart from failing to meet the qualifying criteria in the individual pursuit event when he clocked 10.195s.