PARIS: National para cyclist Muhammad Adi Raimie Amizazahan has met the key performance indicator (KPI) set when he emerged in the top 20 cyclists in the men’s road race C1-3 (physical disability) at the 2024 Paralympic Games here today.
The 23-year-old who made his debut in this year’s Games, ended the 71-kilometre (km) race in Clichy-sous-bois in 16th place with a time of 1 hour 56 minutes 23 seconds (s), and was also the second fastest Asian rider behind 15th placed Japan’s Masaki Fujita (1:56:13s).
Muhammad Adi Raimie’s teammate, Mohamad Yusof Hafizi Shaharuddin ended in 26th place with a time of 2:08:46s while the gold medal went to Fin Graham of Great Britain (1:43:19s), and Frenchmen Thomas Peyroton-Dartet (1:43:19s) and Alexandre Leaute (1:43:43s) took the silver and bronze respectively.
“In the early stages of the race, his (Muhammad Adi Raimie) pace was good only that he lacks experience for the remainder of the race, and overall ended in the top 20, to me that’s very satisfying,” national para cycling head coach Johari Mohd Nayan told Bernama.
He also expressed admiration towards Yusof Hafizi’s fighting spirit, who raced even though he had a fever today, and believed that the cyclist could have been in the top 20 races if he was well.
“Yusof Hafizi is a fighter, he did not want to have a ‘did not start’ status and wanted to finish the race, to me, his performance was very good even though he raced with a fever,” he said.
Meanwhile, Johari said that his cyclists’ performance in Paris was better than Tokyo, as some of them had set personal best times, including Yusof Hafizi in the track cycling even in Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines velodrome last week.
Yusof Hafizi ended fifth out of seven cyclists overall in the qualifying heat of the 3,000 metre (m) men’s individual pursuit C1 (physical disability) with a time of 3:55.254 s beating his previous personal best of 4:01.314 s at the 2024 World Para Track Cycling Championship in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The 2024 Paralympics that began on Aug 28 is scheduled to end tomorrow.
