New Delhi: On the opening day of the Track Asia Cup, India bagged 6 medals including 3 Gold, 2 Silver and 1 Bronze. Deborah took 2 Gold Medals out of these.
A day which marked world record and gold medal performance by Devendra Jhajharia at Paralympics, the Indian Cyclists put up a great show at the IG Velodrome Track, bagging 6 medals to start the medal tally.
India’s Star Cyclist, Deborah Herold did not disappoint the fans and took home two gold medals. In the women elite, 500m Deborah won Gold, clocking 35.964 while Malaysian Mohd. Adnan Farina Shawati and Yin Yin of Hong Kong won silver and bronze respectively.
In the category of Team Sprint Women Elite event, the Indian team comprising of Deborah Herold and Kezia Vargheese beat Kazakhstan to bag the gold medal with a timing of 35.962. In another event, bronze medal was awarded to Rajkumari Devi, due to walkover at the women elite pursuit 3kms event.
Speaking about her performance, Deborah Herold, in the post session meeting said, “ I was suffering from back pain from last 10 days but this has been an excellent start for me. I am hoping on to keep the medal tally rising. My personal aim at the moment would be to improve my timing with every event.”
Moving over to the Men’s event:The men’s elite team sprint event saw Iran bagging gold with a time of 46.330 while Malaysia and Kazakhstan bagging the silver and bronze respectively with timing of 47.999 and 47.641. Indian team finished fourth in the Team Sprint event.
The Indian coach RK Sharma was satisfied with the performance of the Junior team which lived up to the expectations. Sharma, who had claimed yesterday that the junior team is expected to add on to the number of medals won in previous editions. The Indian Junior men’s bagged silver in the Team Sprint beating Kazakhstan with a time of 49.299 and junior women team bagged a gold in the Team Sprint event, Nayana Rajesh and Anu Chutia gave a tough fight to the team from Uzbekistan with a timing of 37.452.
Alena Reji won Silver at the Track Asia Cup 2016 at New Delhi (Image Credit: Nitin Arya)
India saw rise of another star today as Alena Reji, who was taking part in her first international event with the Track Asia Cup 2016, won a silver beating Jantuganova Olga of Uzbekistan. Malaysian Anis Amira won gold medal with a timing of 38.443.
On the medal table, India is sharing the top spot jointly with Malaysia with 3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze each; among other countries. Hong Kong with 3 gold and 2 bronze stands second in the tally followed by Iran with 1 gold.