Asian Track Cycling Championships organised by Cycling Federation of India kicked off here today at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi on Saturday, 18th June. Participants from 15 countries are competing in this enthralling cycling event where riders from Asian countries are trying to improve their ranking enroute to qualify for World Championships. India has an added advantage to perform at their home track.
The opening day of the 41st Senior, 28th Junior Asian Track & 10thPara Track Cycling Championships witnessed 12 finals out of which 4 for Para Championships.
Indian team bagged 1 Silver and 6 Bronze medals in 41st Senior & 28th Junior Asian Cycling Championships while 1 Gold, 1 Silver & 1 Bronze in 10th Para Track Cycling Championships.
Team India opened their medal tally with Silver medal of Junior Women 4km team pursuit event, Pooja Dhanole, Himanshi Singh, Reet Kapoor & Jasmeek Kaur Sekhon clocked 4:54.034s against Korean riders KIM Chaeyeon, CHEON Yunyeong, KIM Eunsong, AN Yeongseo who clocked 4:47.360s and bagged Gold while Kazakhstan bagged Bronze of the event with 4:48.872s.
In the qualifying round held in morning session, Indian Team clocked 4:54.884s and outclassed Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan Riders and placed second in the heats to qualify for Final.
In Senior Women 4km Team Pursuit event, the Indian riders consisting of Rejiye Kh Devi, Chayanika Gogoi, Meenakshi & Monika Jat outclassed Uzbekistan riders Evegeniya Golotina, Madina Kakhkhorova, Margarita Misyurina, Yania Kuskova to secure bronze medal by clocking 4:44.699s against 4:47.545s of Uzbekistan.
After a gap of 17 years, the Indian team could win any medal in the Senior Women category in any Asian Track Cycling Championships. Gold & Silver of the event was won by Korea (Jumi Lee, Jieun Shin, Youri Kim, Ahreum Na) and Kazakhstan respectively.
Meenakshi said after the event that it was a neck-to-neck fight & I was watching the Uzbek riders who were giving a good competition but we gave our best and the result was in our favour. I’m happy that I was part of the Indian team who won the first ever medal of the Senior category in any Asian Track Cycling Championships.
Another Bronze came for Team India when Team of Niraj Kumar, Birjit Yumnam, Aashirwad Saxena, Gurnoor Poonia clocked 4:22.737s against Uzbekistan (Abdulkhamid TUYCHIEV, Sanjarbek Ergashev, Diyor Takhirov, Vladislav Troman) 4:26.995 in Junior Men 4km Team Pursuit event. Kazakhstan won Gold while Korea bagged Silver of the event.
Senior Men Team of 4km Team Pursuit Japan riders Shoi Matsuda, Kazushige Kuboki, Shunsuke Imamura, Naoki Kojima won Gold by overlapping the Korean riders in the event. Indian team also added a bronze to the kitty when they outclassed Kazakhstan riders in the last lap to secure the medal. Indian team was far behind till 3000m but in the last lap Indian cyclists pedalled fast to clock 4:07.901s against 4:13.688s of Kazakhstan.
Team of Vishwajit Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Venkappa K & Anantha Narayan said, “We didn’t leave our rhythm & without considering the timing, we pedalled till the end of the race and snatched the medal from a tough opponent by breaking them in power game.”
India has progressed a lot in the endurance events, around 8 years ago it was difficult to complete the race but now the scenario has changed and Indian riders are not only completing the races but also winning the medals.
Chief Coach VN Singh
Sprint sections
In the much cheered for Women Senior Team Sprint event, Korea team of Sunyoung CHO, Hae Ji Park & Hyeonseo Hwang won the gold medal with a timing of 49.685s. Japani’s riders Riyu Ohta, Yuka Kobayashi & Mina Sato had to be satisfied with Silver with the timing of 49.973s. India’s Trishya Paul, Shushikala Agashe & Mayuri Lute won Bronze medal of the event with 50.438s. Malaysia gave them a good fight for Bronze and timed 50.559s which was not enough for a medal.
We clocked 51.012s just ahead of Malaysia’s time of 51.169s in heats and were nervous before the finals. We decided to produce better time in finals and strategy worked out. She said that I was out of India for a month and practicing alone but team members were also in good form and we won a medal for India. I’m happy that I can win a medal here.”
After winning the medal, Mayuri said
In Junior Women Team Sprint Korean riders Yunseo NA, Doye KIM, Chaeyeon KIM created a New Asian Record with a timing of 51.607s and won the Gold medal, old record of 53.00s was in the name of Malaysia set in the year 2021 at Cairo. Malaysia won the Silver while India claimed Bronze in the event.
In the Junior Men Team Sprint event, Korea won Gold with 45.265s followed by Kazakhstan 47.288s & Malaysia 47.162s. India claimed 4th position in this event.
