KUALA LUMPUR: Track cyclists Azizulhasni Awang and Shah Firdaus Sahrom have reached the third round of the men's individual sprint at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Malaysian duo, however, had to dig deep before they could progress via two repechage rounds at the Izu Velodrome in Shizuoka today.
Azizulhasni and Shah had placed 17th (9.626s) and 23rd (9.700s) respectively in qualifying which drew them against defending champion Jason Kenny of Great Britain and Olympic favourite Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands in the opening round.
They put up a strong fight but both went down to their opponents and thus had to go into the repechage first round.
Azizulhasni won his repechage group which comprised Colombian Kevin Santiago Quintero and New Zealand's Ethan Mitchell.