India will host 4th edition of Track Asia Cup 2017 from 10th -12th October 2017 at the Indoor Cycling Velodrome at IG Sports Complex in New Delhi. The announcement was made during a press conference held at Chelmsford Club in New Delhi today.
The UCI class 1 graded event which in other words is part of the World Championship qualifier whereby points attained by the cyclist will add to the ranking of the individual and thus makes it more competitive and interesting.
The event will see total participation of thirteen teams from 12 Asian countries namely China, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Macau China, UAE, Uzbekistan, USA & India. More than
150 cyclists from different countries will compete in this event for the top honours.
The third edition of this event hosted in India in 2016 saw the participation of 12 countries where India finished second in Medal Tally with 16 medals including 5 Gold, 4 Silver and 7 Bronze while Hongkong stood first in medal tally.
Indian team is practicing in SAINCA (the cycling Academy being managed jointly by Sports Authority of India and Cycling Federation of India) at the World Cycling Satellite Centre in cycling velodrome, whereby mostly cyclists from across the globe are being trained. Also, being the host country, India has decided to field one additional team* ‘SAINCA’ in this event to give more and more exposure to young cyclists in the country.
Shri Onkar Singh, Secretary General, Cycling Federation of India said, “Cycling in India is growing day by day. Starting from the scratch and having a vision to make India a cycling nation; the Federation has transformed its
achievements, which are quite commendable, in such a short span of time. To substantiate our achievements, the Indian cyclists first time in the history of Indian Cycling have qualified for all the consecutive four World Cups and finally made it to the World Championships last year.”
Further adding about the team’s performances at different events, he added,” This year Junior women team, which participated in the World Junior Cycling Championships secured 8th place surprising most advanced cycling nations. The only Asian team above in the ranking was Korea. Not only that Ms.
Aleena Reji was the third fastest in its first lap of the team sprint among all the nations participating in the championships, the so confident Indian sprint team comprising of Deborah & Aleena Reji of women sprint secured silver medal in the recently concluded 5th Asian Indoor Asian & Martial Art Games, thus creating another milestone in the history getting medal at the any Asian Games after 1951. Not only this, Ms. Aleena Reji again created ripples in the velodrome, when she clocked first lap in less time than the current World Champion Ms. Lee Wai Szee of Hong Kong.”
Speaking further about the Star Cyclist Deborah Harold, “Deborah our rising star secured another two silver medals in Keirin and sprint event and in both the events she put a brave fight and lost only to the current World champion Ms. Lee Wai Szee of Hong Kong.”
Further about the event, he said, “We have already successfully conducted three editions of the event including Asian Track Cycling Championships in 2016 and this time most of the Indian Junior Cyclists are under top 10 in UCI World Ranking. This time we won many medals at International level,this improvement of Indian Cyclists happened due to the maximum exposure to our Indian Cyclists after opening of SAINCA ‘SAI National Cycling Academy’ & World Cycling Satellite Centre in New Delhi.”
Speaking about the other stakeholders of Indian Cycling, he said, ” The Federation also owes to its success to M/s. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. for their support as a CSR initiative and has gone a long way in contributing towards this success. Our Star performer Ms. Deborah Herold is ranked 6th and Ms. Anu is ranked 8th in UCI World Ranking and we are expecting a good show from them.”
He also said that the preparations are done for the Track Asia Cup and we are expecting a spectacular event this time where in top Asian cyclists will be competing for the Olympic and World Cup qualifications. I would like to wish good luck to all the participants in this event. Our Indian cyclists have worked hard in preparing for this
event and I am confident that they will perform well in front of the home crowd. CFI is fully committed to the development and promotion of the sport in India.
Ms. Paula Martins of Portugal has been appointed the Chief Commissiare of the event by the UCI (International Cycling Union) while other 30 Indian commissaries and technical officials will be officiating in this Asian
Cycling extravaganza.
With the plan to attract more and more spectators to come and cheer the Indian cyclists, the federation has decided that entry to watch the live action will be free for all.
Indian Squad:
India will field a 29 member strong team in this event comprising of all the section of ME, WE, MJ and WJ to give a tough competition to the world class teams. Deborah, Alena Reji, Nayana Rajesh, Sahil Kumar will be the key riders from Indian team who had won several medals at the International level is all set to give tough competition to the opponent teams while the Indian sprints boys and girls teams are also ready for making historic wins this
time.
Speaking about her preparations, Deborah,” I’m concentrating on my events and I will perform my personal best. I’m more confident this time as I won several medals in Asian Indoor Games held recently with good timings. My team mates are also performing well and in a good tune. The things look easier when you perform at a certain level and I’m sure that I will achieve the standards set by my coach.”
In all the performance of the Indian team under the able guidance of the UCI’s qualified Chief coach Mr. R.K Sharma will be quite commendable and we look forward much better performance than from the previous years.
Speaking about India’s performance recently, the coach, RK Sharma said, “We’re improving, still a lot to do to reach the Olympic Podium, but we’ll get there in time. We’re concentrating, for now, on events which are important for rankings and exposure”
When asked about the infrastructure related to cycling, as there were some rain induced issues at the IG Cycling Velodrome in past few events, Mr. Onkar Singh said, “Track has been revamped in a recent refurbishing done in conjugation with the Government of India and SAI”.
The event is commencing on October 10.