Asian Track Cycling Championships: India finish with best-ever nine senior medals
Birthday boy Ronaldo Singh’s silver in men’s individual sprint and Chayanika Ghosh’s bronze in the 10km women’s scratch were the two medals India won on the final day.
The Asian Track Cycling Championship 2022 ended on Wednesday with India’s Ronaldo Singh winning a historic silver medal in the men’s sprint event at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in New Delhi.
Chayanika Gogoi also clinched a bronze in the 10km women’s scratch race on the fifth and final day to help India finish with a total of nine medals – one silver and eight bronze – in the senior category.
Ronaldo, who was celebrating his 20th birthday on Wednesday, started the day by defeating Kazakhstan’s Andrey Chugay, the eventual bronze medallists, in the semi-finals. Ronaldo lost the first race but bounced back to win the next two races to storm into the final.
The junior world No. 1 Indian, however, was unable to follow up in the gold medal match against Japanese veteran Kento Yamasaki, who won the first two races to pocket the gold.
It was India’s first-ever individual silver medal at the Asian meet.
“Gold was in my mind but I’m also happy with the first-ever silver,” Ronaldo said. “This is the best-ever performance of my career and in every tournament, I improved my technique, this is most important.”
This was Ronaldo Singh’s third medal in the 2022 championships. Earlier, he won bronze medals in the 1km time trial and team sprint events.
However, it was 19-year-old Chayanika Gogoi who opened the Indian medals tally on Wednesday with bronze after finishing ahead of Kazakhstan’s Rinata Sultanova, a pre-tournament favourite, in the 10km women’s scratch race finals. Korea’s Youri Kim won the gold while Kie Furuyama of Japan clinched silver.
The final day on the Velodrome witnessed the finals of 10 events taking place.
Indian cyclists also performed well in the junior and para events which were being held alongside the elite races. The junior and para athletes won 14 medals combined - two gold, five silver and seven bronze.
Japan topped the overall medals tally (senior, junior and para combined) with 18 gold, seven silver and two bronze medals. Korea finished second with 12 gold, 14 silver and three bronze medals.
The Indian cycling team finished its campaign with 23 combined medals, including two gold, six silver and 15 bronze, which is the best-ever performance by India at the championships.
Participants from 15 countries are competing at the 41st edition of the Asian Track Cycling Championships and points earned from the event will count towards the cyclists’ qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Asian Track Cycling Championships 2022: Indian medal winners
Women’s 4km team pursuit - bronze (Swasti Singh, Chayanika Gogoi, Meenakshi and Monika Jat)
Men’s 4km team pursuit - bronze (Vishwajit Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Venkappa K and Anantha Narayan)
Men’s team sprint - bronze (Ronaldo Singh Laitonjam, David Beckham and Rojit Singh)
Women's team sprint - bronze (Trishya Paul, Shushikala Agashe and Mayuri Lute)
Women’s 500m time trial - bronze (Mayuri Lute)
Men’s 4km individual pursuit - bronze (Vishwajit Singh)
Men's 1km time trial - bronze (Ronaldo Singh)
Men’s individual sprint - silver (Ronaldo Singh)
Women’s scratch race - bronze (Chayanika Ghosh)