KUALA LUMPUR: Olympic medal prospects Azizulhasni Awang and Shah Firdaus Sahrom will skip the Nations Cup in Milton, Canada, on April 12-14 to focus on their high-intensity training in Melbourne, Australia.
Azizulhasni and Shah Firdaus are assured of a berth at the Paris Games, and can afford to miss the Nations Cup which offers Olympic qualifying points.
National coach John Beasley said the riders, including Ridwan Sahrom and Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri, have been in Melbourne since last week.
"Azizulhasni, Shah, Ridwan and Izzah are undergoing high-intensity training in Melbourne for four weeks," said the Australian coach.
"I will only bring Izzah to compete in Milton (Nations Cup) to try to get her to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
"After training in Melbourne, they will return to Malaysia for another phase of training before heading to Europe for final preparations before taking on the challenge in Paris."
Azizulhasni also skipped the Nations Cup in Hong Kong two weeks ago to focus on training. The 36-year-old proved that he is on the right track for the Olympics after winning the keirin gold and finishing fourth in the sprint at the Adelaide Nations Cup last month despite suffering from pericarditis.
Shah Firdaus has been unlucky. He had food poisoning ahead of the Hong Kong Nations Cup and underperformed. And he suffered a crash during training at the Nilai Velodrome a week before the Adelaide Nations Cup.