KUALA LUMPUR: Azizulhasni Awang's long-time coach John Beasley would like to see him take up sports management and help change Malaysian sports for the better in the future.
Beasley, who has coached Azizulhasni since he was a teenager, said that it is time for the latter to move on to the next phase of his life.
Azizulhasni, 36, has previously said that he would retire from the national team after the Paris Olympics though would consider continuing racing in domestic competitions in Japan or in other series he has not previously raced in.
"This is it, he is retired now (from national team). He has given 17 years of service to the country. It has been a long and distinguished career, he won his first world championship medal back in 2009," said Beasley yesterday.
"I think it is now time to get on with the next part of his life. He has four beautiful daughters and also has six subjects (sports science) to finish in university.
"I think he just wants to race his bike for fun over the next two years in just the keirin, maybe in Japan or somewhere else.
"He has the next couple of years to work out what life is going to look like for him.
"For me, his value lies somewhere in (sports) management. Heading up high-performance sports in Malaysia would be something nice but that is just my selfish goal for him.
"He can make real change for sports in Malaysia but he has to want to do it. He has to get out of bed everyday and have a strong passion to make change, mine (passion) is this (coaching).
"At the end of the day I just want to support him. We just have to wait and see what comes over the next few years."
Azizulhasni's campaign in Paris came to a disappointing end after he was disqualified in the men's keirin yesterday.
Azizulhasni, drawn sixth behind the derny, was judged to have overtaken the derny before it left the track during his first round heat at the Saint Quentin en Yvelines Velodrome.
Chef de mission Datuk Hamidin Amin confirmed that Malaysia filed an appeal following Azizulhasni's disqualification but were unable to overturn the decision.
Azizulhasni has otherwise had a stellar career with his 2017 keirin world title and two Olympic medals at Rio 2016 (bronze) and Tokyo 2020 (silver) being among the highlights.