Track Cycling World Championships 2021: India fail to qualify for men’s team sprint finals
The three-man Indian cyclists’ team could only finish 12th in qualifying. Only the top eight make the finals.
A three-man Indian cycling team finished 12th out of 13 teams in the men’s team sprint event qualifiers at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2021 in Roubaix, France on Wednesday.
The Indian team of Jemsh Singh Keithellakpam, Laitonjam Ronaldo Singh and Y Rojit Singh clocked 45.469 seconds in three laps of qualifying at the Velodrome Couvert Regional Jean-Stablinski tracks. They were almost three seconds adrift of the qualifying leaders and reigning three-time world champions, the Netherlands.
Jemsh, Ronaldo and Rojit were part of the squad that won gold in the men’s team sprint at the 2019 world junior track cycling championships.
In the qualifying stage, three-man teams do a lap each around the velodrome with the aim to set the fastest cumulative time.
The top-eight progress to the first round, where they are pitted against each other in heats (first vs eighth, second vs seventh and so on). The two fastest winning teams then head to the gold medal match while the next two fastest teams compete for the bronze medal.
The Netherlands’ team of Jeffrey Hoogland, Harrie Lavreysen and Roy van den Berg - the Tokyo 2020 gold-medallists - eventually won their fourth-consecutive world championship title, clocking 41.979 seconds in the final.
France’s Florian Grengbo, Rayan Helal and Sebastien Vigier bagged the silver medal, finishing half-a-second behind the Dutch team.
The German team of Stefan Boetticher, Joachim Eilers and Nik Schroeter beat the Russian Cycling Federation to the bronze medal.
Indian cyclist Laitonjam Ronaldo Singh has one more event to look forward to on Friday - the men’s individual time trial.