CYCLING / UCI JUNIORS TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Firdaus lands bronze

CYCLING / UCI JUNIORS TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Firdaus lands bronze

BY ARNAZ M. KHAIRUL - 11 AUGUST 2014 @ 8:02 AM

A DAY after the heartbreak disqualification in the keirin, Mohd Firdaus Mohd Zonis bounced back to deliver a historic bronze medal in the 1km time trial at the UCI Juniors Track World Championships in Gwangmyeong, South Korea yesterday.

The 18-year-old became only the second Malaysian ever to win a medal at the world junior meet after Adiq Husainie Othman’s bronze in the scratch race in Moscow in 2009.

The Kuala Selangor-born missed his personal best time of one minute 03.965s but was satisfied with his time of 1:04.161s.

The Czech Republic’s Jiri Janosek clocked 1:02.558s to bag the gold medal ahead of Russia’s Alexey Nosov who clocked 1:04.005s, just 0.056s ahead of Firdaus.

Firdaus said he didn’t allow the disappointment of being controversially disqualified after winning his keirin semi-final heat on Saturday to get to him.

“I’m just happy to have delivered the medal for the country, my family and my coach (Junaidi Nasir). But this is not all, tomorrow (today) there’s still the 200m sprint and I want another medal from there,” said Firdaus.

“I didn’t think too much of what happened on Saturday, I was just down there as usual and focused on today. Yes, we targeted my personal best, but that would have been possible if this were a timber track.

“But considering this was a concrete track which was quite heavy, I’m not disappointed at all with the time.”

Firdaus’ younger brother Mohd Fadhil, 16, finished 22nd with a time of 1:07.187s.

Junaidi was satisfied with the performances of both his charges, but wanted to ensure they remained focused on the 200m sprint today.

“The time was a bit slow compared to his personal best clocked at the Asian Championships in Kazakhstan, which was on a 250m indoor timber track,” said Junaidi.

“It was humid and track conditions were heavy. Considering that, this was quite an acceptable time. I’m happy with the performance.

“But as we did with the disappointment of the keirin, we must not allow this medal to get to our heads. We need to prove a point in the sprint as we missed out on the keirin and that is exactly what both riders are preparing for.”