Azizulhasni, Shah advance to keirin semis

NAGOYA: Track riders Azizulhasni Awang and Shah Firdaus Sahrom have booked their spots in the men's keirin semi-finals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games today.

Azizulhasni secured his spot in the semi-finals after finishing second in his first round heat behind China's Xie Han at the Izu Velodrome in Shizuoka.

Shah also placed second in his first round group behind Hong Kong's To Cheuk Hei. Only the top two from each first round heat secures direct qualification to the semi-finals.

Japan's Minato Nakaishi and Kazakhstan's Kirill Kurdidi secured the other two spots.

The other riders will have a second chance to qualify via the first round repechage heats later.

The keirin semi-finals and final will be held this afternoon.

Youngster Nur Alyssa Farid, 20, also advanced to the semi-finals of the women's individual sprint after beating Japan's Aki Sakai 2-0 in the quarter-finals.

Izzah Izzati Asri, who claimed the keirin bronze earlier this week, lost to China's Jiang Yulu 2-0.

Alyssa will face Yuan Liying, who won keirin gold, in the semi-finals this afternoon.

The other semi-final will be between Japan's Mina Sato and Yulu.Izzah will compete in the fifth to eighth place classification race.