Keirin Open. The real Saturday night fever

Pic: Riders warming up ahead of the Keirin Open at the KL Velodrome on Saturday night. Up front is Terengganu's Shahrul Afiza Fauzan.

I couldn't help but giggle to myself, right from the first of a whole series of sms messages I got from Fairoz Izni Abdul Ghani and Hardi Razali, which began early Saturday morning.

It was all about what was supposed to be a little race at the KL Velodrome late that night, which was cooked up between the duo, with Datuk Malek Maidin, their former national teammate, among the key drivers.

They'd never organised a race themselves - Hardi and Fairoz being among the first cyclists I'd covered during the fledgling years of my little career. So, this race, which eventually costed about a little over RM2,000, was a 'BIG' thing for them. Somehow, I had a feeling they were worried I'd ditch them that night and not arrive at the velodrome. Hahaha... Well, I told them from the start, they can count on my support.

Seriously, it was quite a painful task for these greenhorns to get the show running. But if you read on, you'll see that it eventually turned out into something rather fun and enjoyable for everybody who cared to go, which was roughly about 200 people.

So, sensing the discomfort within the souls of my two friends, I decided to take up Le Tua coach Joe Nayan's invite to join him and his wife for buka puasa at the velodrome.
I was worried that the Uptown night market in the velodrome carpark would be a nuisance to the entry as the night grew, and it turned out so, but nothing stopped the serious cycling fanatics from getting into the track - Shaharudin Jaffar, Datuk Astaman Abdul Aziz and Datuk Naim Mohamad included. Rosman Alwi, who said he'd meet me there didn't turn up though!!


Then, slowly but surely, by about 9.30pm after the first of the riders - Akmal Amrun and Amir Mustafa Rusli - arrived to register, it slowly built up into the race that Fairoz and Hardi had wanted, complete with 'guest star appearances' by Olympians Rizal Tisin and Edrus Yunus, along with their elite sprints teammate Junaidi Nasir. Their coach John Beasley was also on hand, helping out the riders and giving valuable advice to Fairoz. Of the trio, only Rizal contested the race, and of course won the keirin. Junaidi only found out an hour before the race and did well to make it to the track swiftly.
Edrus was there lending a helping hand to the younger riders and did show off some bike handling skills. As you can see below.

Rizal came decked in his Selangor jersey. Long time since he raced in it I suppose... But the centre of attention was his really, really gorgeous BT Stealth bike..

Top road sprinter, Anuar Manan, who's due to leave for Iran to ride with the Azad University team in a week's time, also made himself available and did give the pure track sprinters a run for their money. I fact, he finished third in the keirin, behind Rizal and Harnizam Basri.

In fact, the RM100 that Anuar won for third place, was a historic feather in his big cap, as it was his first pay packet from a track race. What other talents does this 22-year old have!!!!??

In all, it was a strong show of support from the local cycling fraternity. How else could you explain a climber starting a keirin race! Fauzan Ahmad Lutfi did...

Pic: This second round heat had a star-studded cast. First from left is Akmal Amrun, in the middle of the picture is Anuar and Rizal starting side by side. Not wanting anyone to 'touch' his rider, John Beasley aptly helped out Rizal at the start. hehehe....

Pic: And this was the cast for the final. Notice there were nine finalists. and John Beasley was starting Akmal, not Rizal!!

The atmosphere wasn't spectacular. Half the floodlights temporarily went off for half and hour at 10.30pm. But there was some Press, yours truly included. Even RTM made their way and were busy interviewing Datuk Astaman before the start of the scratch race, which was won by Zamani Mustaruddin.

This was the field for the scratch race. Quite a nice number, being briefed by Fairoz before the start..

And if there's any award for a guy who just becomes automatically so generous whenever it comes to cycling, it should go to Datuk Astaman. He'd arrived at the track and enjoyed the race, then brought smiles to the faces of the whole place when he just doubled the prizemoney with another RM800 and Rm200 to the organisers for the next round. Duly, he had the honour of presenting the prizes.

I must say, it was a good start to something seriously good like the Keirin Open. Imagine, it was born out of the frustrations of a young coach and the support of lifelong friends he'd made during his cycling career. Fairoz was having trouble getting the budget approved and released so that he could train his boys and girls at night, under floodlights, during the Ramadhan period. So, some friends got together, pooled together rather, and collectively funded the race out of their own pockets.

There were some big contributors, mostly small contributors. Most, like my boss Vijesh Rai, who'd been smitten by the keirin bug after covering the event at the Olympics and watching our Pockey Rocket Azizul Hasni in Beijing, contributed out of their wish to see more Malaysian superstars come to the fore.

We've held the Asian Championships keirin title for three years now. I guess we're soon on our way to making the keirin, a truly Malaysian event.