Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
India bagged three medals including a gold to take its medal tally to ten (4 gold, 5 Silver and 1 Bronze ) and emerge leader on the penultimate day of the three day of the 12-nation Track Asia Cup at the IG Velodrome here on Saturday .
However, there were a handful number of crashes too but the pain was all erased in the enthusiasm of the cyclists.
In Men Junior 3 km Individual Pursuit final, Bilal Ahmed claimed silver with a timing of 3:28.903s, this was his second silver of Track Asia Cup. While Kazakhstan’s Danil Pekhotin won his second gold of this tournament clocking 3:28.273s. Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy (SAINCA) claimed bronze of this event.
A big surprise came of the day when Junior Cyclist E. Chaoba Devi of SAINCA won over favourite Nayana Rajesh P in Women Elite 3 km Individual Pursuit finals. Subarna Barma from Bangladesh won the bronze in this event.
Chaoba Devi expressed her happiness on winning the gold. She said that “I’m doing training for 7 hours on daily basis and very glad that the hard work paid off. My sole aim to represent and win medals for the country”.
In the Women Junior 2 km. Individual Pursuit, Swasti Singh won the gold medal with a timing of 2:41.123 s and an average speed of 89.37 km per hour. Danamma Chinchakh from SAINCA secured the silver medal with an average speed of 73.9 km per hour. Before this tournament, Danamma won bronze medal in the Asian championship in Point race event.
In Men Elite Scratch Race of 15 kms. Thurakit Boonratanathanakorn and Patompob Phonarjthan from Thailand won gold and silver medals respectively. Ryan James from Netherlands won the bronze.
The Men Elite 4 km Individual Pursuit final saw Hong Kong’s Siu Woi winning the gold. While Ryan James of Netherlands grabbed silver, his second medal of the day, Yuttana Mano of Thailand got Bronze.