KUALA LUMPUR: Josiah Ng believes that his former teammate Azizulhasni Awang can achieve a fairytale ending to his career at the Paris Olympics next week.
Josiah said Azizulhasni has come back stronger than ever after undergoing open heart surgery in 2022 and is in good form.
He expects Azizulhasni, Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen and Aussie Mathew Richardson to be the three main contenders for the keirin event gold medal.
Azizulhasni has indicated that he will retire from the national team after Paris.
"I am really excited because I believe that Azizul can deliver a fairytale. The fairytale is that he wins gold, our very first one," said Josiah when contacted today.
"Honestly, the likelihood of it happening is very real. I'm talking about a 30 per cent chance (Azizulhasni) vs 70 per cent for the rest of the world, I'll take that bet any day.
"I don't think anyone else in the history of Malaysian sports has that big of a chance to win Olympic gold.
"If you talk about me back in 2004, I probably had a two or three per cent chance of winning gold and even then we got excited (at prospect of winning).
"Those (Lavreysen, Richardson) are his two big rivals. Not to discount the rest of the world but between those two, they probably have a 60 per cent chance of winning.
"So if a betting man does his homework, there is a 90 per cent chance that gold will come from one of these three riders while the rest have a 10 per cent chance."
Josiah, 44, reached the keirin final at the 2004 Athens Games and went on to compete at the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London games, the latter two as teammates with Azizulhasni.
He believes Azizulhasni's surgery may have helped him become stronger as a rider.
Azizulhasni underwent open heart surgery in 2022 to correct a coronary artery anomaly which he had suffered from since birth.
"I think even he had his doubts about whether he could come back from that surgery. That is just the nature of heart surgery, there are just so many unknowns," said Josiah.
"But not only did he prove that he could come back, it may have even increased his chances (of winning) compared to before the surgery.
"I think he may have figured out that his body is now functioning better than before, basically it (heart condition) was holding him back.
"If you remember, there were a few years when he found it challenging against the top guys. The surgery fixed a huge problem."
Azizulhasni and teammates Shah Firdaus Sahrom and Izzah Izzati Asri are currently undergoing a final training camp in Mallorca, Spain. They will travel to Paris on Thursday.
The men's individual sprint event will begin on Aug 7 while the keirin starts on Aug 10.