{"id":1670,"date":"2016-08-19T14:28:38","date_gmt":"2016-08-19T14:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1670"},"modified":"2016-08-22T09:11:10","modified_gmt":"2016-08-22T09:11:10","slug":"pocket-rocket-azizulhasni-awang-wins-malaysias-first-track-medal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=1670","title":{"rendered":"Pocket rocket\u2019 Azizulhasni Awang wins Malaysia\u2019s first track medal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bronze<\/a><\/p>\n

Eight years after carrying Malaysia\u2019s flag at the opening of the Beijing Olympics, Azizulhasni Awang finally fulfilled the dream of winning his country\u2019s first ever track cycling medal on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Awang, nicknamed the \u2018pocket rocket\u2019 because of his small stature, came third in the men\u2019s keirin at the Rio Olympics, earning a bronze medal for a country with little heritage in a sport dominated by Europe and Australia.<\/p>\n

After disappointment in London and Beijing, the 28-year-old who suffered an horrific injury in 2011 when part of a wooden track pierced his leg, finished just behind the Netherlands\u2019s Matthijs Buchli in a race won by Britain\u2019s Jason Kenny.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means a lot. We\u2019ve been waiting for an Olympic cycling medal for a very long time,\u201d he said with a proud smile after the race.<\/p>\n

Awang came to cycling by riding mountain bikes with his brother around the fishing villages where he lived in eastern Malaysia. He took up track cycling as a 16-year-old after he was spotted racing in Kuala Lumpur.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my first ever race. I\u2019d never trained, I\u2019d never used a track bike,\u201d Awang said. But despite being up against national cyclists, Awang won.<\/p>\n

A coach who\u2019d been watching encouraged Awang to move to Kuala Lumpur to train. At 18, after continuing to show promise, he moved once more, this time to Australia where he continues to live.<\/p>\n

It was a tough decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love my country but to be a professional cyclist I had to leave my family, my friends and stay in Melbourne,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Awang hopes his success on the track can help more people get into cycling in Malaysia and encourage investment in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrack cycling is not a huge sport in Malaysia. We only have two velodromes and one is broken and the other one is going to be demolished,\u201d Awang said.<\/p>\n

But he said a new indoor velodrome could be finished as soon as this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter we finish the new indoor velodrome I hope I can spend time during the offseason in Kuala Lumpur.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: AP\/ Indian Express \/Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eight years after carrying Malaysia\u2019s flag at the opening of the Beijing Olympics, Azizulhasni Awang…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[17,12,5,9,10,16,6,3,33,2],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",759,422,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m-300x167.jpg",300,167,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",640,356,false],"large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",640,356,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",759,422,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",759,422,false],"enternews-featured":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",759,422,false],"enternews-medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",720,400,false],"enternews-thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/azizulhasni-awang-m.jpg",480,267,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1687,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1670\/revisions\/1687"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}