KUALA LUMPUR: Track cyclist Azizulhasni Awang has a tricky opening round heat to contend with in the men's keirin at the Paris Olympics tonight but should be able to find a way through to the quarterfinals.
Azizulhasni will face the Netherlands' Jeffrey Hoogland, Matthew Glaetzer (Australia), Ota Kaiya (Japan), Ryan Helal (France) and Jair Tjon En Fa (Suriname) in heat one at the Saint Quentin en Yvelines Velodrome.
Sprint specialist Hoogland won the team sprint gold on Tuesday and had also beaten Azizulhasni in the third round of the men's individual sprint on Wednesday. He is a nine-time world championships gold medallist.
Ota, who set a new 200 metre Asian record in the individual sprint, won two gold (team sprint, individual sprint) at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year and is also a strong keirin rider.
Glaetzer is a two-time Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the keirin (2014, 2018) and also has three world championships gold medals to his name (two team sprint, one individual sprint). Glaetzer did not compete in the individual sprint so he will have fresh legs compared to the rest of the field.
Azizulhasni's teammate Shah Firdaus Sahrom has been placed with New Zealand's Sam Dakin, Mateusz Rudyk (Poland), Nicholas Paul (Trinidad and Tobago), Vasilijus Lendel (Lithuania) and Christian Ortega (Colombia) in heat five.
Paul is the former world record holder (9.100s) in the individual sprint which was erased by Netherlands Harrie Lavreysen (9.088s) on Wednesday. He had also won the keirin gold at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games.
Only the top-two in each heat advance straight to the quarterfinals, which will be held tomorrow, while the rest move on to the repechage round. In the repechage, only the top-two in each heat advance to the quarterfinals.
The keirin is both Azizulhasni and Shah's favoured event and both should find a way through to the quarterfinals either directly or via the repechage.
Azizulhasni is a former keirin world champion (2017) and Olympic bronze (Rio 2016) and silver medallist (Tokyo 2020). Shah claimed keirin bronze at both the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth games and Hangzhou Asian Games last year.
Lavreysen, who has already won the team and individual sprint golds in Paris, remains the favourite for the keirin alongside Australian Matthew Richardson.
Lavreysen has been placed in heat two alongside Andrey Chugay (Kazakhstan), Max Doernbach (Germany), Sebastien Vigier (France), Jack Carlin (Great Britain) and Zhou Yu (China).
Richardson, who was second fastest in the sprint qualifiers, is in heat three with Canada's James Hedgcock, Liu Qi (China), Hamish Turnbull (Great Britain), Shinji Nakano (Japan) and Jean Spies (South Africa).
The men's keirin first round heats will begin at 11.20pm tonight while the first round repechage heats start at 1.20am tomorrow morning.
The quarterfinals, semi-finals and final will be held from 5.30pm onwards tomorrow.