Ronaldo breaks Asian jr record

New Delhi, September 10 

India’s Ronaldo Laitonjam continued his impressive run as he broke the Asian record in men’s junior 200m time trial event at the Track Asia Cup cycling competition here today. After winning two gold medals on Day 1, Ronaldo clocked 10.065 seconds in the qualifying round to break the previous record of 10.149 seconds set in 2018 by China’s Liu Qi. “Qualifying for the finals was in my mind but when I saw the time display, I was surprised and happy,” Ronaldo said.

Table-toppers India continued their medal rush, capturing three more medals to add to the 12 the country won on Day 1. Venkappa Shiva K (3 minutes, 30.106 seconds) won gold in the men’s junior individual pursuit 3 km event. Mula Ram of SAINCA (3:31.833) and Labib Ali of Iran 3:53.723 claimed silver and bronze, respectively.

In the elite men’s 4 km individual pursuit event, India’s Punam Chand captured the silver medal, falling just short against Malaysia’s Emam Firdaus Mohammad Zamri.  Dimitry Potapenko of Kazakhstan settled for the bronze medal.

In the elite women’s 3 km individual pursuit event, Elangbam Devi and Irungbam Devi gave India a silver-bronze finish. In the gold-medal race, Elangbam clocked 4.02:345. She was beaten by Uzbekistan’s Renata Baymetova, who clocked 3.53:120. Irungbam clocked 4:01.398 to beat Alyona Abramchuk of Kazakhstan.

India’s second team — Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy — was also in the medal list as Swasti Singh won the bronze medal in the junior women’s 2 km individual pursuit. Kristina Titovskaya of Kazakhstan won the gold, while Yanina Kuskova of Uzbekistan captured silver.

Nikita Nisha won the qualifying round of junior women’s 200m time trial with a timing of 11:945 seconds.

Esow Alben, a junior world champion, finished second behind Tsz Chun Law of Hong Kong in the elite men’s 200m time trial event. He clocked 10:319 seconds while Law clocked 10:190 seconds. Amarjeet Singh Nagi of India finished third. — PTI