Deborah misses bronze, Aleena bags 2nd medal
New Delhi, February 7
Deborah Herold missed out on a podium finish but India added another bronze through Aleena Reji in the Asian Track Cycling Championships here today.
Aleena bagged the bronze medal in the junior women’s 500m time trial event in a national record time of 37.439 seconds. She broke her own national junior record of 37.80 seconds. The Kerala girl had won the bronze medal in the team sprint event yesterday. India has won two bronze medals in the championships and is ninth in the medals tally.
“I won a silver in the Track Asia Cup here last year but this is a much bigger event and I had not thought that I would win a bronze in 500m time trial,” Aleena said.
The gold medal went to China’s Chao Yue Shen (35.291 seconds), while Korea’s Seolhwa Jeong claimed the silver in 36.35 seconds.
Deborah had to be content with a fourth-place finish in her favourite 500m time trial event despite coming up with a national record time of 35.367 seconds. She finished fourth behind 2012 Olympics medallist Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong, who clocked 34.204 seconds for the gold, Korea’s Sunyong Cho (35.224 seconds) and China’s Li Xue Mei (35.271 seconds).
After Day 2, China are on top of the medals tally with five gold, one silver and one bronze, followed by Japan (four gold, two silver, six bronze), Kazakhstan (3, 0, 6), South Korea (2, 8, 3) and Hong Kong (2, 2, 1). — PTI
