Written By : Victor Choo
PETALING JAYA: John Beasley thought he has seen it all in his illustrious coaching career but was left dumbfounded by Jason Kenny’s audacious sprint to the keirin gold at the Olympics.
The Briton sneaked away and never looked back leaving Azizulhasni Awang and the others by a country mile.
The win saw Kenny become Britain’s most successful Olympian with seven golds.
Even the great Chris Hoy, who surrendered his record as the all-time best gold medal achiever for Britain, was left stunned.
“I have never seen a race like it, to watch the guy at the front ride off into the distance, it was just incredible. He gained a bit of height, kept the pressure on the pedal and just went for it,” said Hoy.
Azizul, who was caught by surprise, managed to beat keirin’s reigning world champion Harrie Lavreysen of Holland to the silver adding to his Rio Games bronze in 2016.
Beasley revealed it was hard to accept the outcome after five years of planning to prepare Azizul to try and win the first gold for the country.
But he is not giving up and wants his cyclists to bounce back stronger in Paris 2024.
“Unfortunately for us, that was the Olympic final, there has never been a race like that and I bet there will never be again.
“It was the one that got away, we will keep our heads up and start our Paris assault and see if we can bring something very special to Malaysia,” Beasley posted on his Instagram yesterday.
The Australian, who has been in charge for more than a decade, also thanked Malaysians for their well wishes following the spirited performances from Azizul and Mohd Shah Firdaus Sahrom.
“Thank you again for the wonderful support, I am so proud to be the Malaysian track cycling coach and all of you have just made it more of an honour and privilege.
“I have been blown away by the support you have given me, words can’t describe how I feel right now.
“I never knew how much this meant to you all. I know what it meant to Azizul and the team as this has been a mission to bring home an Olympic gold medal.
“We are all sorry that it couldn’t have happened in Tokyo, we all tried our absolute best though this time we had to settle for the silver.
“It was an emotional roller-coaster ride as I knew I had the best keirin rider in the world on that day, though sometimes things just don’t always go the way you hoped.”
