Only One Silver, Two Bronze In Cycling For Malaysia

From Jumiati Rosly ', TEXTFONT, 'Verdana, Arial, Helvetica', TEXTSIZE, '1', WIDTH, 75)" onmouseout="nd()">VIENTIANE, Dec 15 (Bernama) -- The national cycling squad only took home a silver and two bronze medals from seven events which ended Monday, after hosts Laos did not include the track event, which was Malaysia's prospect for gold.

The squad had targeted two golds for the men's and women's highway events today, but gold medallist for the women's highway event at the 2005 SEA Games in Manila, Noor Azian Alias, only managed a silver, while Mohd Zamri Salleh won a bronze.

In the last SEA Games in Korat, Malaysia won four gold medals, four silver and four bronze in the track event, while a silver was won by Suhardi Hassan in the men's highway event.

Team manager Datuk Ahmad Sidi Ismail said he was satisfied, especially with Masziyaton Mohd Radzi's performance in the women's cross-country hill climb.

"Malaysia have never won any medal in the event and I see how our athletes strived to win the other two medals in the highway event," he told Bernama here.

He said in the highway event, Malaysia had to compete with experienced racers from Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand.

Women's cycling coach Ahmad Nazali Mohamad hoped the two medals won by the women cyclists would see more women cyclists being absorbed into the elite squad.

"We have been facing a dearth of women cyclists and at the moment we only have Noor Azian and Mariana Mohammad undergoing full-time training, while the others are university students who only undergo training a month before the SEA Games.

"Only Noor Azian is sponsored by the National Sports Council," he said.

-- BERNAMA