PHNOM PENH: The national team failed to continue their excellent pace on the second day of the 2023 SEA Games mountain biking competition when they only finished fourth in the cross country team relay race today
Lining up Ahmad Syazrin Awang Ilah, Zulfikri Zulkifli, Nur Assyira Zainal Abidin and Natahsya Soon in the event held at Kulen Mountain, Siem Reap, which is located about 320 kilometres from the capital of Cambodia, the national quartet only recorded a time of 53 minutes 21 seconds.
The Indonesian riders won the gold medal in the 14.8-kilometre race after recording a time of 50:11s, beating the challenge of Thailand’s quartet who did 51.44s while the bronze belonged to the Filipinos (52.25s).
Team manager Mohd Saiful Abdul Jalil, said the national camp were a bit disappointed for failing to contribute a medals for Malaysia in today’s race.
However, he said no one should be blamed even though the target of the national mountain biking camp for the event was the gold medal.
“Everything went well, but luck was not on our side to at least win the bronze medal,“ he said, adding that Indonesia and Thailand also lined up great riders at this Games.
He said the squad’s focus now is to finish on the podium in the individual cross-country eliminator event.
Yesterday, Nur Assyira brought cheer to the country’s mountain biking camp when she won the silver medal in the women’s individual cross country Olympic event.
For the record, the national mountain biking squad created a historic achievement at the last edition in Hanoi, when they won the first gold medal in the team cross country event (relay) in the history of the event at the SEA Games. – Bernama