KUALA LUMPUR: National head coach John Beasley is all smiles after watching his charges deliver positive performances all around at the Asian Track Cycling Championships (ACC) which concluded in Nilai yesterday.
Former world keirin champion Azizulhasni Awang missed last season's ACC as he was still recovering after undergoing open heart surgery to correct a coronary artery anomaly but was back with a bang this year.
The 35-year-old proved he is stronger than ever after notching a new national record en route to winning the men's individual sprint at the National Velodrome.
He later added the keirin gold to take has career ACC tally to an astonishing 12 gold.
Teammate Shah Firdaus Sahrom showed steely determination to win the keirin bronze despite suffering cuts and bruises in a heavy crash during the semi-finals which wrote-off his WX-R Vorteq bike.
After twice settling for silver (2020, 2022), Fadhil Zonis finally nailed it in the men's 1 kilometre time trial as he romped to the gold this time.
Beasley said he could not have asked for more from his riders.
"I am really happy with their performances, they did phenomenally well, not just the medallists but all of them," said Beasley yesterday.
"What more can be said of Azizulhasni? He continues to perform at the highest level despite the challenges he has gone through.
"We also had a couple of fourth place finishes such as Izzah Izzati Asri in the (women's) keirin. Izzah also did great in the 500m time trial, the 34.2 second timing she did was pretty special.
"Riders such as Izzah just need time and more chances to compete to develop. We have to follow the process and not try to rush it."
Izzah, who is only 19, did well to place fourth in the keirin against a strong field. Her acceleration and racecraft is impressive for her age.
She also broke the national record en route to claiming the 500m time trial silver.
Newly promoted riders Ridwan Sahrom and Umar Hasbullah, who had teammed up with Fadhil to claim the team sprint bronze, were also impressive and could potentially challenge for the podium at the Hangzhou Asian Games (Sep 23-Oct 8).
In the men's junior categories, Hafiq Jafri and Lau New Joe did well to claim silver in the madison while Zulfahmi Aiman Zulkurnain also took bronze in the elimination race. Hafiq also took silver in the points race.
In the women's junior categories, Nur Alyssa Farid took silver in the keirin while Intan Suraya Tokiman claimed bronze in the scratch race.
In total, Malaysian riders won three gold, four silver and four bronze to place fourth in the overall (senior and junior events combined) medal table.
Japan emerged overall champions with 21-7-8 followed by China (11-5-3) and South Korea (4-9-10).