Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
Ace cyclists Deborah Herold and Esow Alben will lead the 34-member Indian challenge in the Track Asia Cup ,which is also qualification for World Cup, World Championship & Tokyo Olympics ,to be held at cycling Velodrome, IG Sports Complex, here from 9to 11th September .
More than 150 cyclists from 15 countries- namely Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran, China, Myanmar, Singapore, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Latvia, Slovakia besides the hosts India will vie for top honours.
The Cycling Federation of India (CFI ) has gone a long way since organsing in 2014 with hardly any stars to showcase and now has become a force specially in Junior section, not only at the Asian level but also have left a mark at the Juniors World Championship with unprecedented success.
The main strength of Indian team is the Junior lead by Esow Alben currently ranked no 1 in the Kierin & Sprint event in the UCI world ranking.
Indian Juniors in Sprint Team event are also ranked at no 2 and this makes our Juniors a formidable team and would be very tough for other countries to beat them. The junior team sprint, which won Gold recently in the World Junior Championship, will be star attraction, while . Esow Alben, who secured three medals in the same championships and recipient of three Gold Medals in the Asian Continental Championships 2019 will lead the Indian challenge.
In the women section Deborah Herold and Aleena Reji will spearhead Indian campaign.They will face tough competition from Hong Kong, Malaysia and Thailand.
The tournament is the UCI class I accredited event. The important factor being that this event is not only part of the World cup, World championship, but also for the Olympic qualifier for 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The process of qualification started in July 2018 will go up toFeb 20th 2020 thus making it most competitive one. The main Challenge in the event coming from Hong Kong , Thailand , Kazakhstan & Malaysia.
The Teams will start arriving on 7th Sept. and would have 02 days of practice session at velodrome before the Commencement of the event on 9th Sept. 2019.
The hosts will also enter its second team which will consists of cyclists from , Khelo India Cycling Academy, which is being managed jointly by the Sports authority of India and CFI. This will provide the much needed exposure of International competition to the young aspiring cyclists of the country.
Chairman, CFI Onkar Singh told media persons that “This competition is a buildup competition for Indian Cyclists, which is being organised regularly so that Junior Cyclists of India can compete with Asia’s best and the exposure achieved here may be encashed for future events. The Junior cyclists will once again show their prowess and will dominate the Track. Esow who is participating in the senior level will be tested in his journey to the senior category”.