Ambition drives Malaysia's Pocket Rocket

Battling track cycling’s heavyweights at London’s velodrome holds little fear for Malaysia’s diminutive sprinter Azizulhasni Awang, who once finished a race with an eight-inch splinter impaled through his leg in a bid for a podium spot. The 24-year-old world silver medallist bore the flag for Malaysia in his Olympic debut at Beijing and now has his heart set on clinching his country’s maiden gold medal in either the individual sprint, keirin, or preferably both, he says. Singing Malaysia’s national “Negaraku” song on the podium at London would secure Azizul a big financial windfall, while etching his name in the history books and knocking soccer and badminton off the back pages of local newspapers. But the cyclist from the sleepy coastal state of Terengganu would simply relish the chance to smash a stereotype, that bigger is ultimately better in sprint cycling. [caption id=“attachment_388931” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Once known as the bad boy of Malaysian cycling, Azizul has made a career of pushing the boundaries. Reuters[/caption] “In Malaysia, our typical mentality is that small people can’t go far in sport,” Azizul told Reuters in an interview between training runs at a suburban Melbourne velodrome. “There’s a lot of thought from managers and coaches, that ‘you can’t go any further, just forget your dream’. “Now, a lot of small-bodied youngsters want to get into cycling, because they know size is not important to reach the top level of the sport. “It’s more about discipline and commitment, your willpower. If you really want to achieve your dream, you work really hard.” Once known as the bad boy of Malaysian cycling, Azizul has made a career of pushing the boundaries, and his single-mindedness as a rookie both impressed coaches and antagonised officials. He followed his brother into a local cycling club as a teenager and earned his first decent bike by fulfilling a promise to his mother to earn a good mark at school. Spotted by a senior coach, the one-time mountain-biker was thrown onto a velodrome in Kuala Lumpur on a borrowed bike and shocked onlookers by winning a number of races against more seasoned riders. Rushed onto the national junior track team, Azizul was booted off it for indiscipline but was rehabilitated in time to win Asian titles for Malaysia and qualify for Beijing where he blamed his inexperience and a technical error for failing to make the final. Months later, he confirmed his potential by snatching the first UCI World Cup title for Malaysia in the keirin in Melbourne in 2008, seemingly coming from nowhere to stun Australian sprinter Shane Perkins. ENORMOUS COMPETITOR Malaysia’s first silver medal at the world championships came the following year at Pruzskow, Poland, where the plucky five-foot-seven (1.70m) cyclist pushed powerful sprinter Gregory Bauge all the way in the final, despite conceding about five inches and more than 20 kilograms to the Frenchman. “The word ‘freak’ is not the nicest to use, but he is the biggest freak in sprint cycling in the world,” Malaysia’s head coach John Beasley told Reuters. “How small he is, how much power he generates and he can mix it with the best of them. “He’s just an enormous competitor. He fears no one but respects everybody. He doesn’t care what they’ve done what they’re reputation is, he just races them. That’s a quality you can’t teach. You’ve got to be born with it.” Azizul, who wears the nickname “Pocket Rocket Man” with pride, a sobriquet inspired by an excited Australian TV commentator, further burnished his credentials with a runner-up finish behind British great Chris Hoy for the keirin title at the 2010 world championships in Copenhagen. He has failed to set the world alight since, barring a sickening injury from a race crash and his extraordinary response to it. Azizul crashed in the final of the keirin at the Manchester World Cup last year and when the dust cleared, his leg was pierced by an eight-inch piece of timber ripped up from velodrome surface. Remarkably, he remounted his bike and finished the race, desperate to protect his place in the World Cup standings before going to hospital to have it removed. He missed the subsequent world championships and then suffered a more serious injury in another freak accident when his right knee was dislocated when mounting a fixed wheel bike at an event in Indonesia. Azizul did not return to full training until October and was underdone at April’s world championships in Melbourne where he was knocked out early in the sprint and finished ninth in the keirin. Beasley is unfazed and says the rider will be at his peak come London. “There’s a lot more in the tank,” said the Australian, who coached a number of his compatriots to Olympic podiums. “The best thing for us is that everyone’s probably written him off because of the lack of performances this year. They think they’ve got him covered but little do they know.” After listening to a radio-broadcasted call of prayer at training in Melbourne, the Muslim Azizul thought back to the splinter as a reminder of what he could do out of sheer bloodymindedness. “I would rather be well known for a gold medal at these Games, but that particular crash does stick in my mind,” he said. “After that crash I trained really hard from scratch, from zero, to get back to where I am.” Reuters