Harpal Singh Bedi/ New Delhi
Promising cyclists Esow Alben and Mayuri Lute rode to glory and titles as India with 13 medals ,including six gold, won the Track Asia Cup championship at IG Velodrome in New Delhi on Sunday.
India won the top spot by bagging 6 gold medals, 5 silver and 2 bronze. Indonesia secured the second place with 4 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze while Hong Kong came third by winning 4 gold and 2 bronze. on.
In the Men Junior 200 Mts. Sprint, Esow Alben grabbed the gold in a tough fight with Kazakhstan’s Dimitry Rezanov.
Esow who hails from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, secured first place with a timing of 10.500 s, Kazakhstan’s Dimitry Rezanov (10.863 s) and Jemsh Singh (11.132 s) won silver and bronze medals respectively.
After his gold medal winning performance Esow said ,”It was a tough fight with Kazakhstan’s rider but I was confident that I can defeat him and I put my all energy in last 50m to grab the Gold.”
The hosts earned their second gold of the day in the Women Junior 200 Mts. Sprint in which Mayuri Lute (Maharashtr) clocked 12.263s tofinish first.
Thailand’s Kanyaral Hnokacw won silver by clocking 12.871s. Alyona Abramchok from the Kazakhstan team got bronze. This was Mayuri’s second Gold medal for her and for the country. Indian team won Gold in both Junior Men and Women sprint.
In the Women Elite Keirin final, Sonali Chanu missed the bronze medal by a whisker. Hoi Yan Jessica from Hong Kong, Crismonita Dwiputri from Indonesia and Fatchah Mnstapa from Malaysia won the first three places respectively. Deborah finished 6th in this event.
in Men Elite Keirin final, India missed all the medals, coming 4th and 5th in the event. But SAINCA’s Amarjeet Singh Negi could manage to bag the bronze in this event. Cyclists from Kazakhstan and Indonesia secured the first and second places.
The Men Elite 25 kms Points Race final was another enthralling event in which Hong Kong’s Ka Yu Leung grabbed the gold medal. Thailand’s Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn missed the gold for just one point. Ryan James from Australia won the bronze and third medal of the event for him.
Track coach R K Sharma expressed his satisfaction with team’s showing saying “I am happy with the overall quality of the performance by my team in the Cup.
He however admitted that Indian cyclists still have a long way to go before they could establish themselves on the International arena “It is a tough journey forward as China and Korea are stronger teams in the Asian region and the quality of European Cycling is unmatchable.”