The trio of Amarjeet Singh, Amrit Singh and Alan Baby avenged their defeat to Hong Kong last month and helped India win the men’s team sprint gold medal in the Track Asia Cup cycling event here on Saturday.
In the final, the Indian riders covered the three-lap race on the 250m track in 48.57 and beat Hong Kong by a margin of 0.92 seconds. Alan Baby, the youngest member of the Indian team, went under 20 seconds (19.87) to provide an early lead to the host.
Neck-and-neck contest
Amrit Singh got engaged in a neck-and-neck contest with Ching Yin Mow to clock 14.25 and give the side a further cushion of 0.25 seconds.
Amarjeet Singh added another 0.2 second in the final lap to ensure India’s victory. “We had lost to Hong Kong in the bronze medal match at the last Asia Cup in Thailand last month. We fell sick because of the change in weather.
However, we were well-prepared for today’s race and had targeted to clock 47,” said 19-year-old Alan.
Unexpected gains
Services had some unexpected gains in its bronze medal playoff against Kazakhstan.
Services, which finished far behind the Kazakh side, was awarded the third place after the visiting team was relegated for violating the rules of relay.
The results (Indians unless stated):
Men: Individual pursuit: Final (4km): 1. Siu Wai Ko (Hkg); 2. Roman Vassilenkov (Kaz); 3. Manjeet Singh.
Team sprint:
Final: India (Amarjeet Singh, Amrit Singh, Alan Baby) 48.57 bt Hong Kong (Kwun Wa Law, Ching Yin Mow, Ka Yu Leung) 49.49; Third place: Services (R.L. Manoj, Faris Salam, S. Renjith) 51.87 bt Kazakhstan (Pavel Vorzhev, Zaki Sultanov, Pavel Gatskiy) 50.28 (relegated for not following rules in relay).
Junior Men: Individual pursuit (3km): 1. Maximillian Mithelmore (Hkg); 2. Yuttana Mano (Tha); 3. Manohar Lal.
Women: Individual pursuit (3km): 1. Wan Yiu Jamie (Hkg); 2. Rutuja Satpute; 3. Farhana Sultana Shila (Ban).
Team sprint: Final: India (Deborah, Kezia Vargheese) 34.29 bt Bangladesh (Farhana Sultana Shila, Parul Akhtar) 42.39.
Junior women: Individual pursuit (2km): 1. Wing Yee Leung (Hkg); 2. Suthima Phonchaisaeng (Tha); 3. Sona Raj V.P.
