Azizulhasni Awang and Shah Firdaus Sahrom's Thursday involvement at the 2020 Olympic Games ended early after they were knocked out from the men's sprint event.

After making it past the 1/16 finals repechage round yesterday, it was always a mountain to climb for the two Malaysian cyclists in the 1/8 finals as they respectively faced Jeffrey Hoogland and Harrie Lavreysen, who had multiple World Championships gold medals under their belts.

They were beaten by the Dutch riders and sent to another repechage round, where they could not make it three repechage wins out of three.

Azizulhasni finished second behind six-time Olympic gold medalist Jason Kenny in his heat, while two-time European champion Sebastien Vigier emerged victorious in Shah Firdaus' round.

Their next event is the men's keirin, which is also Malaysia's final event in Tokyo.

(Photo: asiana.my)