Ronaldo breaks junior Asian record as India add four more cycling gold

NEWDELHI: After winning two gold medals on Day 1 of the Track Asia Cup, L Ronaldo Singh set an Asian record for men’s junior 200m time trial at the cycling velodrome of the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here on Tuesday.

Member of the junior world champion sprint team, Ronaldo clocked 10.065 seconds in the qualifying round to break the previous record held by China’s Liu Qi, whose 10.149 seconds in 2018 was the previous best.

“Qualifying for the finals was in my mind but when I saw the score board, I was surprised and happy,” said the Manipuri boy.

Table toppers India continued their medal rush on Day Two as they captured 10 more medals to added to the 12 — including four gold — they had won on Day One. Of the 10 medals won on Tuesday, four were gold. India’s overall medals tally now stands at 22, including eight gold, eight silver and six bronze.

K Venkappa Shiva won gold in men’s junior individual pursuit (3km), clocking 3:30.106 followed by Mula Ram (3:31.833) and Iran’s Labib Ali 3:53.723.

In elite men’s 4km individual pursuit, Punam Chand captured silver, falling short vs Malaysian Emam Firdaus Mohammad Zamri. Kazakh Dimitry Potapenko settled for the bronze.

In elite women’s 3km individual pursuit, Elangbam Devi and Irungbam Devi gave India a silver-bronze finish. In the gold medal race, Elangbam clocked 4.02:345, beaten by Uzbek Renata Baymetova (3.53:120). Irungbam clocked 4:01.398 to beat Kazakh Alyona Abramchuk for bronze.

Swasti Singh won bronze in the junior women’s 2km individual pursuit with Kazakh Kristina Titovskaya and Uzbek Yanina Kuskova capturing gold and silver respectively. Earlier in junior women’s 200m time trial, Nikita Nisha won the qualifying round with a timing of 11:945.

Esow Alben, who won three medals at the junior world championships, finished second behind Tsz Chun Law of Hong Kong in the elite men’s category. He clocked 10:319 sec to Law’s 10:190.