KUALA LUMPUR: Azizulhasni Awang and Shah Firdaus Sahrom both advanced to the quarterfinals of the men's keirin event at the Tokyo Olympics today.
Azizulhasni left no room for drama as he powered to victory in his heat, treating the Izu Velodrome crowd with a trademark wheelie as he hit the line well ahead of Trinidad & Tobago's Nicolas Paul.
Patryk Rajkowski of Poland just missed out in third while Stefan Boetticher (Germany), Jean Spies (South Africa) and Sebastien Vigier (France) came in fourth, fifth and sixth.
Only the top two riders in the first round and repechage heats will compete in the quarter-finals tomorrow.
Shah's path to the quarters was more dramatic as he made contact with Britain's Jack Carlin in his heat and crashed, subsequently taking out Kazakhstan's Sergey Ponomaryov with him.
The heat, which also featured contender Matthijs Buchli of the Netherlands, Hugo Barrette of Canada and Australian Matthew Richardson, was subsequently restarted.
Shah and Ponomaryov both sat out the restarted race after sustaining injuries in the crash.
The Johor-born, however, was able to come back and race in the repechage round, in which he was able to finish second behind Kwame Brown of Trinidad & Tobago and book his slot in the quarterfinals.
Brown and Shah had also made contact during the race though both riders were able to stay upright.
Shah, who tore his skinsuit and suffered visible cuts in the crash, was sent to hospital for a medical checkup after his race.
The men's keirin quarterfinals, semi-finals and final will be held tomorrow.