Olympics-Cycling-Awang's disqualification at final Games a blow to Malaysia's dreams of gold

(This Aug 10 story has been corrected to clarify that the total number of medals are 15, not 16, in paragraph 7)

By Martyn Herman and Geert De Clercq

SAINT QUENTIN-EN-YVELINES, France (Reuters) - Being disqualified for a technical error in an Olympic event is tragic for any athlete, but Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang had the added burden that the Paris Games are his last and he carried his country's hopes of finally winning their first gold medal.

A twice Olympic medallist in the track cycling discipline of keirin - in which riders gain speed behind a motorcycle before a three-lap sprint - Awang saw his hopes of a third medal wiped out in round one on Saturday as he was excluded for overtaking the derny before it pulled off the track.

The 36-year-old, nicknamed the "pocket rocket", looked distraught as he sat down next to the track. He did not speak to reporters, but his Australian coach John Beasley did not dispute the disqualification.

He said that he might have been able to argue had Awang come in a few centimetres early, but that it was a few metres.

"We must face it, it happened, we have to deal with it, that is life. To go out like this is not great. All we can do is move forward. He knows the rule, he know he broke it, he is struggling to process that," said Beasly.

Awang took bronze at Rio in 2016, which was Malaysia's first track cycling Olympic medal. He went one better in Tokyo where he was runner-up behind Jason Kenny, and gold would have broken the spell that has kept the shiny metal out of Malaysia's reach.

The mineral-rich south-east Asian country holds the all-time highest number of Olympic medals won - 15, mostly in badminton - without a single title and the government has promised 1 million ringgit (about $225,000) for the country’s first gold medallist.

Local companies have also pledged a couple of million more, plus apartments, cars and other benefits.

FIRST GOLD

"Malaysia loves him and he wanted nothing more than to deliver that first gold medal to Malaysia," Beasly said, adding that Awang is shocked and in a state of disbelief.

Awang - who was keirin World Champion 2017 in Hong Kong and who has been Sportsman of the Year in Malaysia five times - is no stranger to misfortune.

After the death of his parents, he grew up in a small fishing village in on Malaysia's east coast in a large adoptive family.

Following his Tokyo silver in 2021, he underwent open heart surgery for a rare heart condition called anomalous right coronary artery in 2022 and recovered to qualify for Paris.

"Nobody believed he could go back to the top level after that, but Australia's top sports cardiologist apologised this year and said 'you proved me wrong'," Beasly said.

He added that Awang still plans to retire after Paris, and will focus on finishing his university degree in Exercise Science at Victoria University in Melbourne, though he may still ride a few keirin races, notably in Japan.

"For me his value is management somewhere, heading up a high-performance sport in Malaysia would be nice. He could make a real change for sport in Malaysia," said Beasly.

($1 = 4.4150 ringgit)

(Reporting by Martyn Herman and Geert De Clercq in France; additional reporting by Rozanna Latif in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by Alison Williams and Ken Ferris)