Ronaldo celebrates birthday with silver medal at Asian Track Cycling

Ronaldo (left) at the medal podium

Birjit Yumnam

New Delhi, 22 June 2022:

The last day of the Asian Track Cycling Championship 2022 ended with India’s Ronaldo Singh producing a terrific performance winning a historic silver medal in the sprint event of senior category.

Ronaldo, the show stopper hogged the limelight in the men elite sprint. This was his third medal in the championship. Earlier, he had won bronze medals in 1Km Time Trial and Team Sprint events. On Wednesday, he gave a tough fight to Japan’s experienced rider Kento Yamasaki but finished with a silver. Yamasaki defeated Ronaldo in back-to-back two races to finish at the top of the podium. Kazakhstan’s Andrey Chugay won Bronze in the event.

In the morning, Ronaldo defeated Kazakhstan’s Andrey Chugay in the Semifinal. Ronaldo lost the first race but bounced back to win the next two races to storm into the final.

After settling the Silver medal on his birthday, Ronaldo said, “Gold was in my mind but I’m also happy with the first ever Silver, this is the best ever performance of my career and in every tournament I improved my technique, this is most important and with the blessings of my family, I achieved it.”

 

 

Indian Junior Cyclist Birjit Yumnam added one more Bronze for himself as well for India, he secured 23 points in 15km Points Race of Men Junior category and was unlucky by 1 point to grab the Silver as his opponent from Korea Sungyeon Lee secured 24 points for the same. Gold was won by Farrukh Bobosherov of Uzbekistan.

A big surprise of the day was when 19-year-old Chayanika Gogoi opened the Indian tally with Bronze over Kazakhstan’s favourite Rinata Sultanova in 10km Women Scratch Race finals. Youri Kim won Gold while Kie Furuyama of Japan clinched Silver.

Chayanika Gogoi expressed her happiness at winning the medal. She said that “I never missed my training and was very glad that the hard work paid off. My sole aim is to represent and win medals for the country”.

The final day witnessed exuberant performances on the Velodrome with finals of 10 events taking place. However, there were a handful of crashes too but the pain was all erased in the enthusiasm of the cyclists.

Japan topped the medal tally with 18 Gold, 7 Silver and 2 Bronze medals in the 41st Senior & 28th Junior Asian Track & 10th Para Track Cycling Championships held at IGI Sports Complex here. In the world class field, the Indian Cycling team finished their campaign by winning 23 medals including 2 Gold, 6 Silver & 15 Bronze in the Championships which is best ever performance of any Indian Cycling contingent. Korea finished second with 12 Gold, 14 Silver & 3 Bronze medals while Kazakhstan secured third place with 4 Gold, 4 Silver & 3 Bronze.

At the end of championships, delighted Maninder Pal Singh, General Secretary of Cycling Federation of India said, “We started off as the underdogs but we performed more than what was expected from us. He further added that when your athletes start winning medals at the international arena, then every one’s heart says “Ye dil maange more”. I’m happy with the commendable show of our athletes and in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, I’m confident that our athletes will surely give a tough fight to opponents.”

 COMBINED MEDAL TALLY OF 41 ST SENIOR & 28 TH JUNIOR ASIAN TRACK CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE

JAPAN 18 7 2

KOREA 12 14 3

KAZAKHSTAN 4 4 3

THAILAND 3 1 2

INDIA 2 6 15

MALAYSIA 2 5 6

IRAN 2 1 3

UZBEKISTAN 1 0 6

UAE 1 0 0

INDONESIA 0 1 0

MEDAL TALLY OF 41 ST SENIOR & 28 TH JUNIOR ASIAN TRACK CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE

JAPAN 15 7 2

KOREA 12 14 3

KAZAKHSTAN 4 4 3

MALAYSIA 2 5 6

UZBEKISTAN 1 0 6

UAE 1 0 0

INDIA 0 4 13

INDONESIA 0 1 0

IRAN 0 0 3

MEDAL TALLY OF 10 TH PARA TRACK CYCLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

COUNTRY GOLD SILVER BRONZE

THAILAND 3 1 2

JAPAN 3 0 0

INDIA 2 2 2

IRAN 2 1 0

Press release

Ronaldo Singh advances to semifinal in sprint event on day 4 of Asian Track Cycling Championships

Himanshi Singh 

Harashveer Singh Sekhon 

 New Delhi:  June 21, 2022: As we head into Day 4 at the Asian Track Cycling Championships, it is Japan that leads the medal tally with 11 golds. The Japanese have won 11 golds, 6 silver and 2 bronze, with a total of 19 medals. Three of their golds have come from Para Cycling.

 The Koreans are in second position with 10G, 9S, 2B ahead of Kazakhstan (4G, 3S, 1B). India is at 5^th place with 2G, 5S & 13B.

 Today there were 6 finals but India’s search for a medal on 4^th day of the Championship continues to draw a blank. The growing event ‘Cycling’ in India couldn’t give any medal to India at the end of 4^th day of the Championship but Indian Cyclists won the hearts by giving their best ever performances.

 Harashveer Singh Sekhon gave a good fight to the Korean (Euro KIM) & Japanese (Naoki Kojima) Riders in the 30,000m Points race. In this power event, peddlers have to show their endurance & sprint performance where peddlers have to go for Sprints with full energy after every 10 laps of 120 laps race.

 Sekhon was in the leading bunch and peddling neck to neck with opponents & finishing creditable 4^th with 43 points behind Korea (61 points) & Japan (60 points) riders. Hammadi Al Mirza secured Gold in this event with 69 points.

Ronaldo Singh won his quarter final event of the Men's Sprint event and advanced to Semi Final where he will challenge to Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan. Ronaldo clocked 10.394s (69.27km/h) & 10.234s (70.353 km/h) respectively to defeat Jee One Park of Korea in continuous two sprints.

Junior Cyclist Himanshi Singh earned second place in the 7.5km scratch race but was later disqualified on the ground of dangerous driving. She was blocked behind the Malaysian rider and in an attempt to go ahead of the Malaysian & Japanese rider, she made a technical fault and was disqualified by the Commissionaire.

The Gold was won by Ci Hui NYO of Malaysia ahead of Japan’s Mizuki Ikeda & Sofiya Karimova of Uzbekistan.

 I had no other option as I was blocked by the riders; you have to learn from every mistake and I will work on my techniques to handle such types of situations in future.” said disappointed Himanshi.

 Star Rider Esow once again failed to win his quarter final event of Men Sprint. He lost to Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan. Esow finished his journey empty handed in this tournament.

Press release

 

 

India finish with 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze in Track Asia Cup

Deborah Herold

New Delhi, November 20, 2015: Indian Cycling team finished its campaign by winning 11 medals including 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze in the Track Asia Cup held at IGI Sports Complex here and ranked third in Overall medal tally. Korea finished at the top with 6 Gold, 3 Silver and 3 Bronze while Uzbekistan secured second place with 3 Gold and 4 Silver medals.  

On the final day, India won 2 Gold and 3 Bronze medals.

India’s young cycling sensation Deborah Herold made a fine start on the final day of the Track Asia Cup by winning the Gold medal in the Women Elite Sprint clocking 13.614 seconds to beat Korea’s Cho Sun Young (13.704).

Deborah also missed one medal opportunity as she fell down in her favourite Keiren event. On the final lap, she couldn’t maintain her balance and fell down on the track and after coming in contact of Deborah, Thailand’s Pannaray Rasee also lost her balance and collided. Deborah eventually settled for 1 Gold and 2 silver medals (including one from team event) in Track Asia Cup.

Deborah said “I am bit upset that I missed medal in one of my favourite event Keirin-WE as I fell down, I could have won one more Gold for India and I was leading but unfortunately I fell down and couldn’t win the medal for India. Anyways you improve with every tournament and I am following it. The overall performance of our teams is better. This event is a good preparation for us looking ahead two major events World Cup in Hongkong followed by Asian Championship in Japan early next year. Before this we will also have our training camp in Switzerland from first week of December”.

In the Junior Women Sprint finals, India’s Nayana Rajesh bagged gold medal in 13.510 seconds while Anu Chutia clinched bronze in 13.822 seconds. The silver went to Fatemeh Hadavand of Iran in 13.623 seconds. Nayana led from the start and won in a very fine manner. She was very calm during the event and pedaled the cycle like she is swimming in the pool. 

Nayana said after the event that her coach Mr. R.K. Sharma told us to be calm and soft during the event and he also gave some technical tips which we followed well and due to this I won the gold and Anu won the Bronze.

In the Men Junior section Emerson bagged bronze medal in the Sprint finals with a timing of 12.347 seconds. The Gold of this event gone to Thanawat Uraikit of Thailand and Saiid Suwaidan of UAE won the Silver.

The men’s junior team, consisting of Ranjith Singh, Sahil Kumar, Om Thalor Prakash and Sanju Udayan Abhjith won bronze in the Team pursuit 4 km event, waving off tough competition with a timing of 4:46.643s. Gold of this event won by Uzbekistan (4:39.630s) and Silver bagged by UAE with a timing of 4:42.679s.

The main attraction of today was the point race of 30Km where 16 riders took part together and they have to complete the 120 rounds of the track. However, Indian couldn’t win the medal in this race and Arvind Panwar could secure 11th place but the stamina and pace maintained by Panwar was amazing and we can hope the medals in future with this event. Nikita Panassenko of Track Team Astana won the Gold with 105 points while Timur Gumerov collected 73 points and secured 2nd place. The third place went to Wan Yau Vincent of Hongkong with a total of 52 points.

CFI Press release

World Cycling Satellite Centre inaugurated

New Delhi,  November 20, 2015: The long effort put in by the Cycling Federation of India to get World Cycling facilities in our country has been given green signal today when the “Satellite Centre” was inaugurated at the IGI Cycling Velodrome in New Delhi by Mr. Injeti Srinivas, Director General, Sports Authority of India.

It was just in April 2015 when India started SAI National Cycling Academy (SAINCA) in collaboration with Sports Authority of India & Cycling Federation of India. Most of the riders of 14-16 Age groups are in SAINCA. Now this has been accredited by World Cycling Centre as its ‘Satellite Centre’. This centre becomes the third UCI’s satellite centre in the world, whereby 181 Countries are affiliated to UCI. Only Japan and Korea has the satellite centre.

With the introduction of this new satellite centre, now riders from various countries of Asia can avail the World Class facilities for training available at IGI Cycling Velodrome in New Delhi. This will create a good opportunity to train under the guidance of World Class coaches who will be appointed by UCI World Cycling Centre. 80 riders will be given full residential facility including their boarding and equipment’s which will be provided by Sports Authority of India.

Mr. Injeti Srinivas, Director General, Sports Authority of India said, “The standard of Cycling in India is slightly raising and credit goes to Cycling Federation of India who is planning sincerely and training hard to the riders. This centre will help the development of cycling sport and form considerable bench strength for the Indian Cycling team in furtherance to their quest for participation and winning at Asian, World and Olympic Games. He also said that on behalf of Sports Authority of India, I can assure you to provide all the support from SAI to our cyclists and federation as well.

Mr. Onkar Singh, Secretary General Cycling Federation of India said on this occasion, “We are working day and night to raise the standard of Indian Riders at the World level. The Satellite Centre will help to increase the level of competition amongst our athletes and also our Indian riders will get the maximum exposure by training with foreign riders under the guidance of World class coaches”.

“The world class facilities will help them to learn the new techniques and improve their timings. I am confident that with the inauguration of this Satellite Centre, we will be able to improve our rankings and achieve more medals in the major international events soon. Once we will start getting results at international level, I am sure it will help us in the further development and promotion of sport in the country” said Mr.Onkar Singh.

Cycling Federation of India Press release

Aashu Sharma bags bronze medal

Aashu Sharma (right)

New Delhi, November 19, 2015: Indian Junior Women riders added one bronze to their tally on the Day 2 of the Track Asia Cup at the IG Stadium Complex Velodrome here on Thursday.

In the women junior, Aashu Sharma bagged bronze medal in the Individual Pursuit 2 km Race by finishing in 2:47:652 seconds while men junior team missed a medal, Sahil Kumar finished fourth in the Individual Pursuit 3 Km Race.

In the Women elite category, T Devi Bidiyaluxmi added second silver medal to SAI National Cycling Academy in the Individual Pursuit 3 km Race while only rider from Western India Rutuja Satpute bagged bronze medal in the same category.

In the medal tally India stands at number 4 with 6 medals including 1 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze while Korea is on the top with five medals including 3 gold and 1 silver, followed by Uzbekistan 5 including 2 gold and 3 silver and Thailand is at number-3 with 6 medals including 2 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze.

Today only 4 finals were held (results attached), others were qualifying round.

In Sprint of Women elite category Deborah gave a tough fight to opponents and now will fight with Sunoyoung of Korea for Gold tomorrow. Kezia Vargheeshe also secured its place to play for Bronze where she is ready to give a tough competition to Soojin Kim of Korea.

While in Men Junior Sprint Event, after qualifying round, India’s Emerson and Arkaprava Baul will play for Bronze. They will compete against each other to grab the Bronze medal of Sprint event tomorrow.

After qualifying round in Women Junior Sprint event, tomorrow India’s Nayana Rajesh will compete with Iran’s Fatemeh Hadavand for Gold and India’s Anu Chutia will compete for Bronze with Iran’s Parastoo Bastidejkarghani.

In other events, Deborah of India will compete in her one of the favourite event Keirin and Kezia Vargheeshe of India will also be an eye opener in this event.

After the conclusion of day2, Mr. R.K. Sharma, Chief Coach Indian Team said, “I am satisfied with the performance of Team India and our riders are improving their timings regularly and the day is not far when Indian riders will also be on podium finish in every event of cycling. He said that our Junior Women Team performed very well and I want to give credit to SAI National Cycling Academy where riders are enjoying of better facilities and equipments. He said I’m confident that 3-4 medals will come more on the final day tomorrow.”

India bag 5 medals on the opening day of Track Asia Cup

Amritha Reghunathan 

 Deborah 

New Delhi, November 18, 2015: India's men and women elite teams brought cheers to the hosts' camp by winning 5 medals (1gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze) on the opening day of the Track Asia Cup at the IG Stadium Complex Velodrome here on Wednesday.

Anu Chutia opened India’s campaign by winning a silver medal in the 500 meter Race Distance event in the Junior Women category. In the event, there was no match of new cycling sensation SAI National Cycling Academy (SAINCA’s) Amritha Reghunathan (39.927s) who grabbed gold after beating India’s Anu Chutia (40.093).

In Women Elite event of 500m Race Distance, India’s 20 year old Deborah managed to get silver medal in 35.776 seconds, after losing to Korea’s Kim Wangyeong who completed in 35.179 seconds. Deborah improved her own national record of 37.680 seconds in the same event which she created in the National Games early this year in Kerala.  

After winning Silver medal Deborah said that ‘I’m happy that I have improved my record but it would have been better if I have won Gold Medal. I still have to compete in my favorite events including ‘Keirin and 200m Sprint’ and I’m confident of finishing on top in the events to be played in next two days.”

Today’s limelight was stolen by India’s new sensation Amritha Reghunathan, who is performing from SAINCA team. Her average speed was 45.082 km/hr in 500m time trial. She told after winning Gold that ‘this is just start and you will see India’s cyclists into a new caliber including me. She said that I’m very sure that India will be in first three rank in medal tally.” She also said that “SAI National Cycling Academy is a very good stopover for the juniors because all the facilities are available here.”

Indian Junior Women was much better today and showed very good temperament. Junior Women Team of Anu Chutia and Rajesh Nayana won Gold Medal for India in Team Sprint event with a timing of 39.702s. Uzbekistan won the silver of this event with a timing of 41.852.

While Women elite team of Deborah and Kezia Vargheese won Silver in Team Sprint event with a timing of 37.402 while Korea (35.835) won the Gold of this event.  

One Bronze for India also came in Team Sprint event in Junior Men Category where Team of Emerson, Arkaprava Baul & Ranjith Singh showed their best pedaling and clocked 51.067.

Total 7 final events were held today out of which in 5 events India won Medals. India has fielded two additional teams of SAINCA & Western Indian Team (WIT).

CFI Press release

Cycling Federation of India to host Track Asia Cup in Delhi

New Delhi, November 16, 2015: Cycling Federation of India will host second edition of Track Asia Cup 2015 from November 18 to 20 at the Indoor Cycling Velodrome at IG Sports Complex here.

The UCI class 1 is a graded event, which in other words is part of the Olympic qualifier whereby points attained by the cyclist will add to the ranking of the individual and thus makes it more competitive and interesting.

The first edition of this event hosted in India in 2014 saw the participation of four countries while this time the number has considerably gone up to 10 countries and one continental team. Also, being the host country, India has decided to field two additional teams in this event to give more and more exposure to young cyclists in the country. These two teams are SAINCA and CFI. SAINCA is the cycling Academy being managed jointly by Sports Authority of India and Cycling Federation of India at cycling velodrome, whereby mostly junior cyclists from across the country are being trained.

The event will see total participation of thirteen teams from 10 countries including one continental team i.e. Team ASTANA has also made important entry. The ten countries are Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Korea, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Iran, UAE, Nepal and India. More than 150 cyclists from different countries will compete in this event for the top honours.

Shri Onkar Singh, Secretary General, Cycling Federation of India said, "The preparations are done for the Track Asia Cup and we are expecting a spectacular event this time where in top Asian cyclists will be competing for the Olympic and World Cup qualifications. I would like to wish good luck to all the participants in this event. Our Indian cyclists have worked hard in preparing for this event and I am confident that they will perform well in front of the home crowd. CFI is fully committed to the development and promotion of the sport in India and that is the reason we have decided to field our two additional academy teams in this event, so that our cyclists can get more exposure while competing against top Asian cyclists".

Mr. Frederick Chang of Hong Kong has been appointed the Chief Commissiare of the event by the UCI (International Cycling Union) while other 30 Indian commissaries and technical officials will be officiating in this Asian Cycling extravaganza.

With the plan to attract more and more spectators to come and cheer the Indian cyclists, the federation has decided that entry to watch the live action will be free for all.

20 Member Indian team to compete in the Track Asia Cup

The 20 member strong Indian team will participate in this event comprising of all the section of ME, WE, MJ and WJ to give a tough competition to the world class teams of Korea, Kazakhstan, Iran and Hong Kong. India's Deborah who had won several medals in the last two editions of Track Asia Cup at Taiwan and Bangkok is all set to give tough competition to the opponent teams while the Indian sprints boys and girls teams are also ready for making historic wins this time.

Deborah a tsunami survivor from Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been showing consistent improvement in timings. She has constantly being in the camp for the last two years after she was picked up by the CFI as junior and has now risen to be ranked 10th in the world in the time trial events in the very first year of her senior category. This would not be out of place to mention that except Mexican cyclists who is ranked 8th in the list. All the other ranked cyclists are much older to her.

The strong Indian junior contingent will also fight for their place at the podium. Sahil Kumar who received Gold at the Asia Track Cup in Bangkok is the best bet in the junior boys while the team sprint team in the girls section is also a great hope for the Indian side.

In all the performance of the Indian team under the able guidance of the UCI’s qualified chief coach Mr. R.K Sharma will be quite commendable and we look forward much better performance than from the previous years.

Photo caption: Cycling Federation of India office-bearers in New Delhi on November 16, 2015.

Press release

Indian men and women sprint to gold

New Delhi, November 22, 2014: India’s men and women elite teams brought cheers to the hosts’ camp as well as a sizeable crowd that comprised school children when the cyclists added two more gold medals to their tally on the second day of the Track Asia Cup 2014 at the IG Stadium Complex Velodrome here today.

The Indian riders also claimed their second silver medal besides winning three bronze medals today for an overall tally of three gold, two silver and six bronze medals in both Elite and Junior sections.

It was a very good morning for the Indians in the real sense as Deborah combined well with Kezia Varghese in team sprint final to get gold in the two-lap event in 34.290 seconds. Both Debora and Kezia did their first lap in a time of 18.36 but clipped off more than two seconds in the second to finish ahead of the Bangladeshi duo of Farhana Sultana and Parul Akhtar who took 42.390 for silver. With no competitor for the bronze the medal was scratched.

However, it was the turn of men’s elite team, consisting of Amarjeet Singh, Amrit Singh and Alan Baby, to prove its point in the three-lap team sprit event. They had a very tough competition with Hong Kong and Kazakhstan cyclists breathing down their neck but the Indians overcame the challenge in style to win gold in 48.570 seconds with an average speed of 55.59 kilometres per hour.

In contrast, the Hong Kong team took a little more than a second for silver at 49.490 while the Services team, which is here for participation sake, bagged the bronze at 51.870, thus pushing the Kazakh team members out of the medal bracket. The Services Sports Control Board’s team comprised RL Manoj, Faris Sala and S. Renjit.

In women’s elite 3-km Individual Pursuit, there was no match to Hong Kong’s Wan Yiu Jamie Wong who grabbed her second gold after beating India’s Rutuja Satpute in a great finish after 1000 metres, having overtaken the Indian in the 2000-metre event. The race was stopped after the Hong Kong rider overtook her rival with several laps to go. With no fourth competitor for the bronze medal contest, Bangladesh Farhana Sultana got the benefit to help her add another bronze to team’s tally.  

However, men’s elite 4-km Individual Pursuit saw a good fight between eventual gold winner Siu Wai Ko from Hong Kong and Kazakh Roman Vassilenkov with the former took 4:44.040 minutes while Roman took just a fraction of a second more for silver in the 4000m event. In the bronze medal duel, India’s Manjeet Singh (3.36.460) overtook Thailand’s Boonratanathanakorn (3:43.540) just after the 3000m mark when the race was suspended.

In women junior section, gold went to Hong Kong’s Wing Yee Leung while Thai Suthima claimed silver. But the Indian Raj VP Sona proved too good for Bangladesh’s Sampti Biswas to win bronze, by overlapping her rival in the 2-km event. Though Hong Kong’s Maximillian Gil claimed gold in men’s junior Individual Pursuit, pushing Thai Yuttana Mano behind, India’s Manohar Lal was awarded the bronze without a contest.

In the qualification events held this evening, India assured themselves of a few more medals, including a couple of gold, on the concluding day tomorrow.

The Results (All Finals):
Men Elite (Team Sprint 3 laps): India (Amarjeet Singh/Amrit Singh/Alan Baby) 55.59, Hong Kong (Kwun Wa Law/Ching Yin Mow, Ka Yu Leung) 54.556, SSCB (RL Manoj/Faris Salam/S. Renjit 52.053.
Men Elite (Individual Pursuit 4km): Siu Wai Ko (HKG) 4:44.040, Roman Vassilenkov (KAZ) 4:45.390, Manjeet Singh (IND) 3:36.460, Boonratana Thanakoran (THA) 3:43.540.
Men Juniors (Individual Pursuit 3km): Maximillian Gil (HKG) 3:38.960, Yuttana Mano (THAI) 3:44.870, Manohar Lal (IND).
Women Elite (Team Sprint 2 laps): India (Debroah/Kezia Verghese)34.290, Bangladesh (Farhana Sultana/Parul Akhtar) 42.390.
Women Elite (Individual Pursuit 3km): Wong Wan Yiu Jamie (HKG) 1:19,800, Rutuja Satpute (IND) 1:27.580, Farhana Sultana (BAN).
Women Juniors (Individual Pursuit 2km): Wing Yee Leung (HKG) 1:21.790, Suthima Phonchaisaeng (THA) 1:25.620, Raj VP Sona (IND) 1:26.800, Sampti Biswas (BAN) 1:26.340.

Press release

Deborah lifts sagging Indian spirit with gold

New Delhi, November 21, 2014: Deborah yet again proved to be the saviour for the hosts as the girl from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands won the 500-metre time trial gold in Women’s Elite section on the opening day of the Track Asia Cup 2014 at the IG Stadium Complex Velodrome here today.

The Indian, who clocked 37.250 seconds for the distance, finished way ahead of the silver medallist from Kazakhstan, Tatyana Zadenepryanova and bronze medal winner Parul Akhtar of Bangladesh. The Kazakh girl timed 40 seconds while the Bangladesh 45.600 seconds.

It was Debora’s gold that uplifted the mood of the Indian camp after the hosts had grabbed one silver and four bronze medals during the evening session. Debroah’s race was the fourth in the order and the Indian, knowing full well that she had to beat Tatyana, was at the start gate. But she had picked a good speed, measuring up to 48.322 km per hour, peddled her way to finish the first 250 metres in 20.788 seconds.

That was a good indication as she, at that point of time, was No. 1 on the time chart. But she had another 250 metres to go and she upped the ante with a perfect sprint to the finish point clocking 48.322, clipping off a few milliseconds in the latter half as the sizeable crowd raised the din with a standing ovation.

But for this gold, India had to really struggle for a top podium finish as riders from Hong Kong, Thailand and Kazakhstan were heads and shoulders above the Indian competitors. Of the five other finals on the day, Hong Kong riders grabbed three gold medals in Men Elite 1-km time trial, Women Elite Points Race and in men junior’s 1-km time trial, leaving the crumbs for the rest of the field.

However, Kazakhstan’s Magomed Mamedov took home gold in Men’s Elite Points Race while Thailand’s Sarintip Diow-Archakun had a top-of-the-podium finish in junior women’s 500-m time trial.

India’s Rutuja Satpute and Parvathy V.G. also finished 2-3 for silver and bronze in the Women’s Elite Points Race in which Hong Kong’s Wong Wan Yiu Jaime won gold. The race saw just three competitions, besides the bronze by Amrit Singh in Men’s Elite 1-km Time Trial to add to the booty. Similarly, India bagged a bronze in men’s junior 1-km time trial by Krishna Naikodi and 500-m time trial bronze by Raj V.P. Sona in the women’s junior section.

In women’s points race, Parvathy could have finished ahead of eventual silver medalist Rutuja but she was docked points for being a lap behind. The winner from Hong Kong benefited from this Indian largesse as she had won 100 points for five gain laps besides the Indian’s docked points going to her.

Amrit Singh, on whom India’s hope was pinned, could not match up with neither Hong Kong’s Kwan Wa Law, who won gold in 1-km time trial, or silver medallist Satjakul Sianglam of Thailand as the Indian had to be satisfied with the bronze with a time of 1:08.460. The gold winner had clocked 1:08.350 while the Thai had clocked 1:08.460.

The points race, which is an endurance event, the Indians showed they had a long way to go as riders from Hong Kong and Kazakhstan proved in the elite sections.

The Results (All Finals):
Men Elite (1km Time Trial: Kwun Wa La (HKG) 1:08.350, Satjakul Sianglam (THA) 1:08.460, Amrit Singh (IND) 1:08.880.
Men Elite (Points Race): Magomed Mamedov (KAZ) 81 points, Boonratana Thanakoran (THA) 69, Ching Yin Mow (HKG) 52.
Men Juniors (1-km Time Trial): Maximillan Gil (HKG) 1:08.860, Chakhree Khruthangkha (THA) 1:10.630, Krishna Naikodi (IND) 1:12.870.
Women Elite (500m Time Trial): Debroah (IND) 37.250, Tatyana Zadepryanova (AZ) 40.000, Parul Akhtar (BAN) 45.600.
Women Elite (Points Race): Wong Wan Yiu Jamie (HKG) 128 points, Rutuja Satpute (IND) 27, Parvathy V.G. (IND) 5.
Women Juniors (500km Time Trial): Sarinthip Diow-Archakun (THA) 40.690, Wing Yee Leung (HKG) 40.990, Raj VP Sona (JND) 41.420.

Press release