Together We Shall Rise - The 29-year-old hopes his presence along with fellow Olympian Fatehah Mustapa will inspire the younger riders to deliver a historic clean sweep of all eight sprint events – sprint (men and women), keirin (men and women), team sprint (men and women), men’s 1km time trial and women’s 500m time trial.
The Melbourne-based cyclist will only race in the keirin – the same event that he took a historic bronze for Malaysia in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics last year.
In contrast, Fatehah is expected to race in four events – sprint, keirin, 500m time trial and team sprint with Farina Shawati Mohd Adnan.
The men’s team sprint challenge will be mounted by Muhd Shah Firdaus Sahrom, Mohd Khairil Nizam Rasol and Mohd Fadhil Mohd Zonis.
The other track – the endurance discipline – events contested are the men’s and women’s team and individual pursuit, men’s and women’s omnium and scratch.
Track cycling was last contested in Indonesia in 2011 and Malaysia bagged seven out of the 12 golds.
“Fatehah and I are seasoned campaigners. Although the others are competing in their first Games. I believe they will be ready for the challenge by then.
“All of them came to train in Melbourne under coach John Beasley for the last two months.
“Training has been going on well and I think we are good for gold in every event,” said Azizul, who surprisingly has yet to win an individual SEA Games gold.
Azizul only competed in one Games so far – in Korat, Thailand – in 2007.
The Terengganu-born cyclist claimed two silvers – in the 1km time trial behind compatriot Rizal Tisin and was pipped to the sprint crown by Josiah Ng. Azizul’s only gold came in the team sprint with Josiah and Rizal.
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