UAE TEAM ADQ

Safiya Alsayegh finished fifth in the Under-23 Women's ITT race at the Asian Road Cycling Championships being held in Thailand.

Safiya Alsayegh finished fifth in the Under-23 Women's ITT race at the Asian Road Cycling Championships being held in the Rayong area of Thailand.

The Emirati athlete of UAE Team ADQ, the first Arab rider of the WorldTour, defended the jersey of her National team with honour, offering an excellent performance in a race also valid for Olympic qualification, against opponents of great level.

The race took place over a 30-kilometre course with start and finish at Dok Krai Reservoir. The winner in the Women's Under-23 category was Uzbekistan's Yanina Kuskova with a time of 41:51 at an average speed of 43.011 km/h. Chinese Yuhang Cui and the other Uzbek Evgeniya Golotina completed the podium more than a minute behind. Fourth place for Indonesian Dewika Mulya Sova and then Safiya Alsayegh finished in fifth place with a delay of 2:14 at an average speed of 40.832 km/h, leaving South Korean Jueun Lee and Thai Kamonrada Khaoplot behind by a fair margin.

After the competition Safiya Alsayegh told us: “I am happy with my fifth place. It was a tough race, but I would say the performance was very good because I feel I gave everything I had and I struggled a lot. It was also a qualification race for the Olympics, so the level was top this year, with more than 15 national teams participating. So it's clear that getting better results was even more difficult, so I'm happy with this result and the form I've achieved so far. And I can only promise to do even better in the future”.

Thanks to the support of the UAE Cycling Federation and her UAE Team ADQ team, Safiya Alsayegh has been able to train in Europe, in Spain, in recent weeks to try and improve her performance even further. “I have to thank in particular the Federation who gave me the opportunity to do this training camp and then the whole team and in particular my coach Cristina San Emeterio who trained me at my best. Let's say it was a very good final preparation after a good training period in Dubai. Now I can't wait to test myself again in the Road Race in two days' time”.

In fact, Safiya Alsayegh, who this season had already reconfirmed herself as National Champion in the Road Race and ITT, will also take part in the Road Race on Monday 12^th June, again for Women Elite and Women Under 23, which will take place on a 109-kilometre route designed over two laps of a 23-kilometre circuit and the final 63-kilometre straight stretch to the finish line at Rayong Provincial Sports Stadium. Start at 10am local time.