New Delhi, 20th September 2018: Indian team is ready to take the challenge in the ‘fifth’ edition of the Track Asia Cup 2018 which is going to kick off tomorrow at the capital in Cycling Velodrome, Indira Gandhi Sports Complex from 21-23 September 2018. The eyes will be on Indian Juniors this year as Indian Junior Cycling Team has already left a mark at the Juniors World Championship.
Indian team is optimistic to top the medal tally as Junior Cyclist Esow, Silver medallist of World Junior Cycling Championships and currently ranked World No. 1 (Keirin event) will lead the team and will give the challenge in Sprint, Team Sprint and Keirin event.
Experienced Deborah Herold will also be the key member of the team who is taking part in Sprint, Team Sprint and Keirin event in Senior category and will try to add Gold medals for the team. While in the women junior category Bronze medallist of Asian Championships, Ms. Dannama Chichikhandi will try to give her best.
It is pertinent to mention here that Indian Men Junior Cycling team comprising Esow of Andaman & Nicobar, Mayur Pawar of Maharashtra and James Singh of Manipur has a new continental cycling Track record in their name in sprint event (46.070 seconds) in recently held Asian Track Cycling Championships held from 16-21 February at Malaysia.
India being the host is also allowed to get in an extra team of cyclists, which would include the young cyclists that have been under training at the SAINCA (Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy). There are about 12 countries participating in the event including India, which are 12 countries (11 Asian + 1 Australia) namely Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, Srilanka, Hongkong, UAE, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nepal, Singapore, Australia.
Commenting on the team for this year, coach R.K. Sharma said, “Our Cyclists have trained in Germany and in good shape. They recently participated in Asian Games and gave a tough competition, although they were not finalists but they are capable to be medal winners in big International Competitions in future.”
On the strategy for this championships, RK Sharma said, “Our riders have to escape from crash, they have to focus on track and don’t lose the hope till the end is the mantra of success.”
Mr. Onkar Singh, Secretary General Cycling Federation of India said, “We are regularly hosting this International Competition to provide the International exposure to Indian riders and the advantage of hosting of this competition can be seen with Junior Cycling team who is performing creditably at World level”.
