The managers of Team Sapura Cycling (TSC) and Terengganu Polygon Cycling Team (TSG), Mohd Sayuti Mohd Zahit and Mohd Saiful Anuar Aziz respectively, will take charge of the men’s road racing team at the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia in May.

Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) president Datuk Abu Samah Abd Wahab said the decision to appoint both individuals as national coaches is to fill the vacancy left by Datuk Ng Joo Ngan, who stepped down after the 2021 SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam.

“The MNCF has decided that Sayuti and Saiful Anuar will be the coaches for the Cambodia SEA Games.

“Joo Ngan had previously stated his intention of not wanting to hold the post, so they (Sayuti and Saiful Anuar) will take over,” he told Bernama yesterday.

Abu Samah also announced that the road cycling team will compete in the Tour of Thailand from April 1-6, ahead of the SEA Games from May 5-17. “The Tour of Thailand will be a warm-up race and will be participated by riders from TSC and TSG, who will be going to the SEA Games, and they will leave for Thailand on Wednesday (March 29),” he said.

Meanwhile, Sayuti is confident that he and Saiful Anuar will be able to help the team achieve their mission to defend the road cycling event gold medal at the biennial Games.

“At the Hanoi edition, we were already paired up and Joo Ngan was the head coach. So, we will continue planning like the previous edition and, more importantly, the mission is to win gold in Cambodia,” he said.

Sayuti said TSC and TSG have each registered four riders to take on the challenge in the Cambodia SEA Games.

“The riders are Nur Aiman Rosli, Akmal Hakim Zakaria, Muhammad Yusri Shaari and Muhammad Saari Amri from TSC as well as Nur Aiman Mohd Zariff, Nur Amirul Fakhruddin Mazuki, Mohd Shahrul Mat Amin and Wan Abdul Rahman Hamdan from TSG,” he said. — Bernama