Ng wants improvement in Beijing

By Greg Johnson

Malaysian track rider Josiah Ng is hoping to continue his progress at this weekend's Track World Cup round in Beijing, China. The sprinter finished the sprint at the Melbourne World Cup in fifth place, but is hoping to move up the leader board this weekend.

"I've been feeling extremely well these past few weeks in training," he said. "I think that I can get some good results here in Beijing and of course the idea is to do better than I did in Melbourne."

Ng was shocked to feel the temperature when he arrived in Beijing on Wednesday. Having travelled from his Melbourne base with the Australian team, where it was 38 degrees Celsius the day they departed, the minus 11 degrees they were greeted by was a shock to the system.

"I knew it would be cold but was not really prepared for the minus 11 temperature that greeted us," he said. "Luckily we're racing indoors, but I hear that even in the track it's not that warm, about 16 degrees. Hopefully they will turn up the heat come race day."

While the Great Britain squad will be absent from this weekend's event, the event features an impressive start list. Returning to the Beijing venue is Olympic Game silver medallists Gregory Bouge, Mikael Bourgain, and Kevin Sireau of France.

"From seeing the roster, the strongest teams in the sprint disciplines will be the French, followed by the Germans," said Ng. "This is the fourth round out of five World Cups held this season and judging from the roster, the depth is by far the deepest. I'm definitely looking forward to some good racing this weekend."

The Beijing Track World Cup runs from Friday through to Sunday. The event is the penultimate round of the Track World Cup, with the finale to be staged in Copenhagen next month ahead of March’s Track World Championships in Pruskow, Poland.