THE gauntlet has been thrown to national track back-up squad coach Fairoz Izni Abdul Ghani as the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) track committee is looking at his charges to shine in the Asian Championships this year.
Azizul won the double of keirin and 200m sprint gold medals in Nara, Japan last year, where Rizal took home the 1km time trial gold. The duo are likely to sit out the Asian Championships on Aug 11-16 in Samarinda, Indonesia as MNCF gives with more emphasis to the second stringers.
"But it is not a final decision. We will still look at the situation at the time and what China and Japan plan to do, which riders they send," said MNCF track committee chairman Datuk Naim Mohamad.
"For the moment, the plan is definitely to give the back-up riders the exposure, because they are in dire need of that.
However, Edrus Yunos and Junaidi Nasir, who are with the Melbourne-based elite squad, may be in the line-up for the Asian Championships. They are Malaysia's best bets for medals in the meet, since both have not been fully utilised in high pressure competition.
The worry is not mainly about medals from the track sprints squad, but more so for the endurance and road programmes, which are not even close to a similar level.
"What we are more concerned about is the road programme, which has to start delivering.
"And the Asian Championships will be the first step towards building our qualification for the 2012 Olympics," said Naim.
The road programme is set to see drastic transformation in stages under the guidance of head coach John Beasley.
The Australian has already put in place a new structure, which also has a cycling-specific sports science team serving the cycling programme under the National Sports Council.
