Indians fail to win a medal on 3rd day of Asian Cycling

Indians failed to win any medal with top cyclist Deborah Herold crashing out at the pre-quarterfinal stage on the third day of competitions in the Saksham Asian Track Cycling Championships here on Wednesday.

Deborah lost out to Jun Hong Lin of China in Women's Elite Sprint event pre quarter-finals. The Indian held onto her position till the second last lap, and tried her best to chase Lin, but her efforts went in vain in the end. The Andaman and Nicobar cyclist had finished fourth in her favourite 500m time trial event on Tuesday.

National coach RK Sharma said the home team was still hoping for a medal from Deborah in the Women's elite

keirin event to be held on the last day of the championships on Friday.

"Deborah has just graduated to the senior ranks, and it takes at least 5-6 years to reach the very best in the elite category. As per her training, she has performed superbly," Sharma said.

Kerala girl Aleena Reji, India's lone medallist in the championship with two bronze, also lost her quarter-final race in the women's Junior sprint event to Seolhwa Jeong of Korea at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium velodrome.

"Even though I have lost my race, I performed better than I expected. I have recorded better timings in the sprint events, so I was hoping for a better time but I am still satisfied with today's (Wednesday) results," Reji said.

In men's elite 1km time trial event, P Sanuraj created a national record with a timing of 1:06.507 secs but he failed to convert it into a medal.

After three days of competition, India's medal tally stands at two bronze won by Reji. She won a bronze in junior women's team sprint with Sushikala Agashe on the opening day on Monday before adding another bronze in junior women's 500m time trial event.

Meanwhile, Sultanmurat Miraliyev of Kazakhstan secured the men's elite four-event Omnium gold. Miraliyev gave a splendid performance, finishing in the top five in all the four races (scratch race 10Km, tempo race 10 Km, elimination, points race 25 km) to bag the yellow metal.

London Olympics bronze medallist Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong advanced to the semi-finals of the women s elite sprint event.

Lee had already won gold for Hong Kong in women's elite 500m time trial event.

There was a minor crash during the men's elite omnium competition with two riders entangling each other but both did not have any major injury and needed only first aid at the spot.