Azizulhasni, Shah Firdaus off to good start

TOKYO: National track cycling ace Mohd Azizulhasni Awang and Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom got off to a good start in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as they both progressed to the 1/32 Finals of the men's sprint event today.

Azizulhasni clocked 9.626 seconds (s) to finish the qualifying round in the 17th place while Muhammad Shah Firdaus ended up in 23rd spot in 9.700s.

A tricky task awaits Azizulhasni in the next round as he will face reigning champion Jason Kenny of Great Britain while Shah Firdaus will go up against Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands.

Meanwhile, Jeffrey Hoogland rode to a new Olympic record of 9.215s to smash the mark set by Great Britain's Jack Carlin just 20 minutes earlier.

Jack had earlier broken his compatriot Jason's old mark of 9.551s that was set in the qualifying round of the 2016 Rio edition.

The top 24 riders out of 32 riders qualify for the 1/32 Finals to be held later today.

-- BERNAMA