On June 20, India had a successful outing at the Asian Track Cycling Championship, winning two bronze medals. Ronaldo Singh made history by winning the country’s first international medal in the 1km time trial. After three days, India has collected 20 medals.
Ronaldo won bronze
Ronaldo, the world junior champion and Asian record holder, pedalled the cycle at 58.254 km/hr and clocked 1:01.798s to place first. He took bronze in the men’s senior category’s 1km time trial event. This was his first medal in this event, as well as India’s. Yuta Obara of Japan won gold with a time of 1:01.118s (59.902 km/h), while Malaysian cyclist Mohammad Fadhil took silver with a time of 1:01.639s.
”I came here for the gold but had to be satisfied with bronze. I just repeated my last year performance which was not enough for gold, to change the colour of medal. I have to focus more on my technique,” Ronaldo said.
India gets two more bronze medals on day 3 of Asian Track Cycling Championships. About his Olympic plans, Ronaldo added, ”I would like to build a team for the team sprint event where we have already won a world junior medal. It would give more exposure to the Indian cycling team, paving the way for versatility in our performance as a nation.”
Another bronze for India
Birjit Yumnam added another bronze medal after pulling away from Ilya Karabutov (Kazakhstan) and Amir Ali (Iran) after 35 laps to finish third in the 40-lap race in the men’s junior category. Hwarang KIM of Korea won gold, while Zulfahmi Aiman of Malaysia came in second.
