NILAI: World keirin champion Azizulhasni Awang was forced to settle for bronze in his pet event at the Asian Track Championships (ATC) in Nilai on Saturday.
Japan's Tomoyuki Kawabata took the gold as he outfoxed both South Korean Im Chaebin and Azizulhasni, who settled for second and third best, at the National Velodrome.
Muhd Shah Firdaus Sahrom came in a commendable fourth.
Azizulhasni, who won his semi-final group, admitted he was disappointed but is optimistic of bouncing back in the individual sprint event on Monday.
"It is a bit sad, of course I always want to win especially when it is a big tournament like this. At the same time I am still grateful to be on the podium as it was a good final," said the 30-year-old.
"The semi went really well and I felt fresh for the final but I expected it to be tough with riders from Japan, South Korea, Kazakhstan and even Shah in the race.
"The plan was to wait for the Japanese (Tomoyuki) and go to the front with him but he played chess with me and waited for me instead. In the end I had to go to the front as time was running out.
"With one and half laps to go I went full gas and it was me and the Korean (Chaebin) rider at the front but the Japanese overtook both of us after the last corner.
"Regardless, it was still a good preparation (race) for me ahead of the World Championships and I will look to go sub-10 (seconds) in the sprint.
"I have never done sub-10 at sea level, my previous best is 10.04s during last year’s KL Sea Games."
It is not a worrying result for Azizulhasni as he is focusing on defending his rainbow jersey in the discipline at the World Championships in the Netherlands on Feb 28-Mar 4.
Azizulhasni had lost in the semi-finals of the keirin at the ATC last year, when he was also more focused on the world meet. The ATC is his first major international competition this year.
The women’s 500m time trial saw Fatehah Mustapa taking bronze after clocking 34.632s. Hong Kong’s Lee Wai Tze took gold on 33.395 while China’s Song Chaorui (34.114s) came in second.
In the juniors, Zulhelmi Zainal, Muhammad Shafiq Mohamad, Muhmmad Hakimi Nor and Muhammad Shahmir Riduan Abdul Halim took bronze in the men’s team pursuit after overcoming Kazakhstan in the third place playoff by recording a new national junior record of 4:13.110s. The old record of 4:22.416s was set in 2014 by Afiq Huznie Othman, Akmal Hakim Zakaria, Asyraf Naim Ying and Ahmad Muazzam Iman.
Korea defeated Japan for the gold in 4:09.908s.