SEPANG: “Do not heap praises on Qabil too much.”
Those were the words from Azlan Abd Rahman, the father of young racer Qabil Irfan Azlan after his son had created history by being crowned as the 2023 MiniGP World Series Champion in Valencia, Spain last week.
Though proud of his son’s achievement, Azlan does not want to see his 11-year-old son to be drowned by the attention and praise but instead hopes his son can continue to sustain his performance in the future.
Azlan, a father of three children said heaping praises on him can be dangerous because his young son has just started his journey in the field of racing and need to stay firmly on the ground to excel on the world stage.
“Do not praise him too much, we need to maintain his performance like normal. I do not want too much attention and praise to spoil his future. It can be dangerous, that is my opinion,” he told reporters after arriving at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), here yesterday.
The Terengganu-born Qabil did the nation proud after a stunning clean sweep in the FIM MiniGP World Series Finals in Valencia to become the undisputed world champion of the 160cc class at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Spain.
Asked about future plans for Qabil after this, Azlan he would leave that task to the programme manager of the Malaysia MiniGP Series Zulfahmi Khairuddin to decide.
Meanwhile, Qabil said he was still in cloud nine and not able to forget those glorious moments of success in Valencia.
Qabil added that he would move from the 160cc category to the 190cc category next season to face bigger challenges in the future.
“I have started training for a change in class and am ready. Since I am back, I will be training harder to excel in a higher class of competition. The future plans are already there but brother Zulfahmi will make the announcement later,” he said. – BERNAMA
