SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France: Being disqualified for a technical problem in an Olympic event is horrible for any athlete, but Malaysia’s Azizulhasni Awang had the added stress that the Paris Games are his past and he carried his country’s hope of lastly winning their first platinum award.
Awang, a double Olympic medalist in the track racing competition of Keirin, who gained speed behind a bicycle before a three-lap jump, saw his hopes of winning a second medal thwarted in rounded one on August 10 because he was excluded for overtaking the derny before it pulled off the trail.
The 36-year-old, nicknamed the “pocket rocket”, looked distraught as he sat down next to the track. He did not speak to reporters, but his Australian coach John Beasley did not dispute the disqualification.
He claimed that if Azizulhasni had arrived a few centimeters early, he might have been able to argue.
” We must face it, it happened, we have to deal with it, that is life. It’s bad to leave like this. All we can do is move forward. He knows the rule, he know he broke it, he is struggling to process that”, said Beasly.