Malaysia’s Amirul Fakhruddin Mazuki served up a big surprise by successfully defending the men’s individual road race gold medal in the SEA Games in Siem Reap today.
The Polygon Terengganu Cycling Team rider came out tops in a sprint finish at the end of the 150.6km race. Aiman Cahyadi of Indonesia took silver ahead of Ronald Oranza of the Philippines.
Mohd Nur Aiman Mohd Zariff, who won the gold in this event in the previous edition in Hanoi last year, placed 19th this time.
His victory was sweet revenge when he lost the gold medal in the 55km criterium race a day earlier on countback and settled for silver. With the average temperature at 42 degrees Celsius, Amirul and Indonesia’s Terry Yudha Kusuma clocked an identical time of 1:13:38 seconds.
After a prolonged review of the photo finish, the Indonesian was declared the winner, while Amirul was awarded the silver medal.
Ronald Nozuelo Oranza (1:13:29s) of the Philippines won the bronze.
