To excel in track cycling...
..usually, the sprinters, they are very muscular, big in size,
to make sure that you can produce big power
and watts on the bike.
It's a different story on me. I'm very small.
In Malaysia, they have a typical mentality
that if you have a small physical size,
you cannot excel in sports.
You can try to find something in you, in yourself,
that you use to cover up that disadvantage.
He's looking for the right moment, coming fast,
super-fast!
I always try to use my speed to counter my disadvantage.
Because of my small size I'm maybe faster on the bike,
so that's why they call me the Pocket Rocket Man.
(GAME BREAKERS)
(AZIZULHASNI AWANG, MALAYSIA
(BRONZE MEDAL, TRACK CYCLING, KEIRIN
(DOB - 5 JANUARY 1988)
My name is Azizul Awang. I come from Malaysia.
(MALAYSIA)
When I first started cycling in Malaysia, I can say
that scene was pretty small and not so much racing.
At that time we have Le Tour de Langkawi,
which is a pro cycling tour in Malaysia.
When they passed around my hometown
at some of the stages,
that's one of the things that really
made me want to be a cyclist.
I grew up in a big family.
From what my mum told me,
I grew up as a very active kid,
always jumping around,
always doing something. I cannot sit still.
And at that young age,
I made the decision to go to sports school
because I told my mom that, "I really want to do cycling.
"I want to be national athlete.
"I want to be a world-class athlete," you know.
My mum, she was really concerned about education
and always asked me, "Come on, do less outdoor activities.
"Less cycling, less sport.
"I want you focus more on studying."
I tried to prove to my mum that being very active in sports,
particularly in cycling,
it's not going to interfere in my studies.
So I studied and also every evening
I was still going out for training.
(AFTER GRADUATING FROM BUKIT JALIL SPORTS SCHOOL,
(AZIZUL RECEIVED AN OFFER TO TRAIN WITH JOHN BEASLEY
(IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA.)
When I got the offer I was so excited.
I always wanted to train with John Beasley in Melbourne.
And I saw this little guy win three gold medals and a silver,
and he didn't just win them, he dominated.
He's quite small as a junior
and he's racing some big athletes from China and Korea.
I honestly had no idea where we were going to go
He's small, he doesn't produce a lot of power.
He would fall through every crack in the system.
He started off... He didn't have any money
when he came to Australia.
He only had enough to feed himself.
He was like most Malaysian athletes.
Some had already a little bit of English
that they learned at school,
and he was one that had very limited.
But he's so intelligent,
it didn't take him long to pick it up.
I remember John and his wife, Vicky Beasley, told me,
"If you want to be an elite athlete,
"you have to change your lifestyle, your diet,
"and also you need to be adaptable."
For me, he's not just like a coach for me
but he's also like a father figure.
He helped in and outside of sports.
(OLYMPIC GAMES, BEIJING 2008)
My Olympic journey started with Beijing '08.
I was still very, very young.
And I put a goal for me to be at the Olympic Games in 2012.
But I was so surprised, I made that early.
I was one of the smallest flag-bearers during that Games.
(AFTER BEIJING 2008, AZIZUL PICKED UP HIS FIRST MEDALS
(AT THE UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS.)
(IN 2009, HE WON SILVER BEHIND GRÉGORY BAUGÉ IN THE SPRINT.
(AND IN 2010, HE WON SILVER
(BEHIND SIR CHRIS HOY IN THE KEIRIN.)
(JUST AS HE WAS PEAKING FOR THE LONG-AWAITED
(OLYMPIC GAMES LONDON 2012, DISASTER STRUCK IN 2011.)
Chris Hoy accelerating!
(UCI TRACK CYCLING WORLD CUP, MANCHESTER 2011)
He goes to the front! Hoy takes the gold medal!
We're going into 2011.
The last of the World Cup events was in Manchester.
Everything was going to plan,
and then with about 100 metres to go,
there was a massive crash.
John called me, you know, "Azizul!" I said, "Yes."
"Are you OK? I said, "Yeah, I'm OK."
"Do you want to continue the race?
"Do you want to finish the race?"
He goes, "Yeah, can you get me up? I want to cross the line."
I was in pain. So much pain.
And I finished the race, and I quickly stopped on the fence.
I can see that something's
piercing through my calf,
I feel, "I'm dead. This time I'm dead."
I was like, "Can I make the Olympic Games?
"Can I still ride the bike?
"Am I going to lose my leg?"
The doctor told me that I was very lucky,
because the splinter was in between my tibia and fibula
and very close to hitting the main artery.
The splinter was something that we had to get over mentally,
so that was the hardest thing.
It just took forever in that lead-in to London.
We ended up getting back into full training
probably five months before,
and it wasn't enough time
to have him in the best shape of his career,
both mentally and physically.
(OLYMPIC GAMES, LONDON 2012)
I was very, very, like very disappointed.
I cannot deliver something and I cannot achieve my goal.
(AZIZUL MADE THE KEIRIN FINAL AT LONDON 2012
(BUT HE FINISHED IN LAST PLACE.)
I went back to Malaysia,
I didn't see the race footage
for nearly three months, I can say.
Post-London, it was so disappointing for him
to not get a medal at the Olympics.
We sat down and we mapped out the next four years.
Obviously we're after Malaysia's first cycling medal
ever at Olympic Games.
(OLYMPIC GAMES, RIO 2016)
It was really, really intense in the final
because the race was restarted two times.
The plan is to be really patient.
Azizul executed really well
and I was getting excited
and then, you know, it's getting tight.
And I really didn't know that we won the bronze medal
until it came up on the screen.
And then it was the best feeling
Everything he'd worked so hard for in the last 11 years.
Cycling, it was really small when I first started.
I can say nowadays the scene just gets so much bigger.
People would never understand
that we've come from a country that's got one velodrome
and we win an Olympic medal.
It's just captured the imagination of Malaysia.
And we have good young guys coming up.
I hope I can mentor them
as much as I can.
And I hope I can leave my legacy to them.
Even though we are a small country,
I believe that there's a lot of future world champions
that we can find there.