The national cycling team stands on
the podium after finishing second
in the second leg of the Team Sprint
event of the Southeast Asian Grand
Prix 2013 on Tuesday. Picture:
Courtesy of Yafiz Jamaludin
Yafiz Jamaludin has added a national track cycling team to his wishlist.
The national cycling coach saw his charges put up a good performance at the first and second legs of the Southeast Asian Grand Prix 2013 in Malaysia over two weekends.
The team of I'maadi Abd Aziz, Rifa'ie Hj Johor, Azmi@Loqman Hadzid and Nazri Mastani finished in third place for the Team Sprint during the first leg last weekend and bettered that performance by placing second in the second leg on Tuesday.
Contested at the Cheras Velodrome in Kuala Lumpur, the national side faced stiff competition with riders coming from hosts Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Australia.
Yafiz was delighted with the results and expressed hopes that the Sultanate will have a national track cycling team in the near future.
"That is a good result because this is the first time that the riders are competing on the track. I can see that we're good in the endurance event so I have a target to create a national track team," said Yafiz in an interview with The Brunei Times yesterday.
"Currently we only have the road and MTB (mountain bike) teams so this is a good opportunity for young riders to join the national squad. We need more riders to step forward because there are a lot of categories for track cycling.
"It is also a good event to target medals in any race because there are a lot of categories," he said.
"We are hoping to gain support for the track cycling team because as of now we still don't have a bike for this event. It is good that I received an invitation from the Malaysia National Cycling Federation and got support from the National Sport Council of Malaysia as well," he added.
"They gave the riders a chance to compete in track events by lending the bikes and are looking to develop the event in this region.
"They have shown good effort. I trust that we can do good in this event if we have the chance and facilities. But to start things off, we will need a bike because it is different from the other events," concluded Yafiz.
Meanwhile, the national road race championship Series II 2013 is set to be held on June 30.
Organised by the Brunei Darussalam Cycling Federation and Department of Youth and Sports, entry forms can be downloaded from the BDCF website.
Each race will be limited to 25 teams of 150 riders.
