One Indian among 13 chosen for 2016 Asia Talent Cup

The 13 riders will join the batch of 2015 riders, who will be invited for another year. In addition to the 13 announced, five more were named as standby, should any from the chosen cannot make it.

126 hopefuls from various Asian, Middle Eastern countries along with Australians had travelled down to Malaysia in the hope to be selected for the 2016 season on Wednesday.

Upon reaching the Sepang International Karting circuit, the riders first attended a briefing session with Director Alberto Puig, who explained the young pilots about the day ahead.

Then they were asked to show off their skills to a group of experts, led by Puig, on the Honda underbone scooters prepared by the technical team.

The riders were divided into groups of 10 as the action got underway with a run of 12 laps where the they were not only tasked with setting the best time possible but also showing off their skills in handling the bikes.

After two rounds of screening, only 45 candidates passed to the second round of testing. Session after session several riders got eliminated until ultimately a final round of 15 candidates was held of which 13 were selected.

There were five Indonesians, three Japanese and Malaysians, and one Indian and Australian who got through - the sole Indian rider being Ahmed Kadai Yaseen from the five who were initially shortlisted.

After the selection Puig said: "This type of test and selection is not easy because the level between the top guys is similar, and a big group of guys have not so much experience, you see it immediately but for the rest are difficult to evaluate it."

“At the end, it was like always difficult, as we already said, but we managed to get a group of riders that will join next year.

"We are happy, we have some nationalities that could be in the lap times, this is important, and this gives us a better package for next year.

"From now on we will have to try to work with these kids during the winter and see how they join together with the guys that are already in the Cup."