India had a wonderful Sunday in the Hero Cycles Asian cycling championship as it won its second bronze medal at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex Velodrome here.
The team of Deborah and T. Manorama Devi, after qualifying for the play-off earlier in the day, pipped Malaysia by 0.148 seconds to win third place in the women’s junior team sprint.
Later, the duo again shone brightly to finish among the top six cyclists in the first round of the junior keirin event. They are now slated to participate in the penultimate stage which will be followed by the final on Monday.
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After her success in the team sprint event, Manorama said, “We had finished behind Malaysia in the qualifying and that spurred me on to perform better and win the race.”
The 16-year-old Manipuri rode the final lap of the sprint and gave credit to her coach Ibomcha Motum for her success. The duo’s achievements on the penultimate day of track cycling dimmed the relative failure of the rest of the Indian contingent.
Mahitha Mohan and Vinaya Vijayan finished last in women’s sprint qualifying and the former produced a repeat performance in the 500m time trial final.
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Parvathy last
In the omnium races, V.G. Parvathy (women) finished bottom while Shahbaaz Singh Bhangu (men) could only claim the penultimate spot.
Among the foreign cyclists, London Olympics bronze medallist Wai Sze Lee of Hong Kong set a new championship record of 34.310 seconds to win the women’s 500m time trial.
The previous mark of 35.187 was set five years ago by Chinese Jin Jie Gong in Nara, Japan.
A couple of other championship records were also broken on Sunday by Chinese Taipei (women’s junior team sprint) and China (women’s team sprint).
However, South Korea continues to lead the medals table with eight gold, two silver and one bronze. Hong Kong lies second with three gold medals in its kitty.
The results:
Men: 1km time trial: 1. Won Gu Jun (Kor) 1:03.904s; 2. Kenta Inake (Jpn) 1:04.816; 3. Shih Hsin Hsiao (Tpe) 1:05.033.
Omnium: 1. Artyom Zakharov (Kaz) 18; 2. Shuang Shan (Chn) 21; 3. Kazushige Kuboki (Jpn) 24.
Women: 500m time trial: 1. Wai Sze Lee (Hkg) 34.310 NMR (previous: 35.187, 2008); 2. Jingjing Shi (Chn) 35.088; 3. Fatehah Mustapa (Mas) 35.581.
Team sprint: 1. China; 2. Japan; 3. South Korea.
Omnium: 1. Mei Yu Hsiao (Tpe) 10; 2. Min Hye Lee (Kor) 15; 3. Minami Uwano (Jpn) 18.
Junior: Women: Team sprint: 1. Chinese Taipei; 2. South Korea; 3. India.