-G Rajaraman
Some dreams are agonizingly distant, and some tantalisingly close. A bunch of endurance cyclists, training hard in the outskirts of Guwahati, believes that it can pull off something special in the Asian Games in the Chinese city of Hangzhou later this year. A few seasons ago, this would have been dismissed as pipedream since India could not even put together full squads.
Aware that a contribution by the cyclists can boost India’s Asian Games medal tally – after all, a total of 72 cycling medals were on offer in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta – Government has encouraged the Cycling Federation of India with generous support for the development of elite and junior riders through training and competition.
A gentle reminder will not be out of place.
Each of India’s three medals in the Asian Games cycling competition came in the inaugural edition in 1951. Dhangar Lhanguard, Raj Kumar Mehra, Madan Mohan and Gurdev Singh (4000m Team Pursuit) won silver behind Japan, while Rohinton Noble (sprint) and Netai Chand Bysack (1000m time trial) claimed a bronze medal each.
The Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, will be offer an indication of how well India has planned and executed its quest to end the medal drought. There is expectation that sprinters like Esow Alban and Ronaldo Singh Laitonjam, who have topped the UCI World Junior ranking in the past, will be able to make a mark in the senior ranks as well, at least at the continental level.
While the sprinters are at training in the velodrome in the New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi Indoor Sports Complex, the endurance riders have made the Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education North-East Regional Centre in Sonapur on the outskirts of Guwahati as their base, logging miles on the busy National Highway to Shillong in Meghalaya.
The CFI thinktank is betting on the men and women’s squads coming up with a combination of speed, endurance and teamwork to present in Hangzhou. Taking a leaf out of Athletics Federation of India’s book, which advocates relay squads ahead of individual quarter-milers, CFI has trained its sight on Team Pursuit events.
There is quiet confidence in the teams, drawing their strength from the bronze medals won by the men and women in the Asian Track Cycling Championships in New Delhi last year. Admittedly, the Chinese riders did not enter the competition, but the Indians turned in improved times. Besides, the growing depth has only served to boost the belief.
Vishavjeet Singh and Meenakshi, both 20, are infusing hope that the endurance riders can produce a special effort as a team in the Asian Games.
Vishavajeet Singh, who grew up in Patiala, overlapped Malaysia’s Lim Chun Kiat to claim the Individual Pursuit bronze in the Asian Championships last year. He clocked 4:36.709 in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and set a National Record (outdoor) when winning gold in National Championships in Guwahati in December in 4:42.402.
Meenakshi, who hails from Dubaldhan in Haryana’s Jhajjar district, finished fifth in 3km Individual Pursuit in 3:50.223 in the Asian Championships. It was the first time an Indian woman rider came home inside 4 minutes. She backed that up with 3:49.596 in Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. A good indication of her talent can be had from the fact that she clocked 3:58.159 in rewriting the outdoor National Record in the National Championships in Guwahati.
India finished fourth among six men’s teams in the qualifying round, clocking 4:11.050 behind Japan (3:57.753), Korea (4:02.072) and Kazakhstan (4:08.005). With a dramatic effort over the final quarter of the 4km race, India turned the tables on Kazakhstan in the bronze medal race, clocking 4:07.901 against the central Asian team’s 4:13.688.
Viewed against the Indian squad’s time of 4:23.251 in the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta, a 4:11 in qualifying and the 4:07 in the medal match in the Asian Championships are very creditable indeed. To show that it was not a flash in the pan – or merely home advantage – the Indian team came up with a time of 4:12.865 in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Similarly, when compared to the Indian team’s 5:05.388 in Jakarta, its time of 4:48.413 in the qualifying and 4:44.699 in the bronze medal contest against Uzbekistan in the Asian Championships shows the vast improvement. Yet, the Indian team knows that it will have to come up with a better show if it is to make the medal rounds in the Asian Games this year.
The team knows that the challenge in the Asian Games will be tougher, but if its quiet confidence and determination sees them make it to the higher echelons in the Asian Games, the endurance riders will be making a gentle statement to try and attract attention of not just the fans of sport but also the officials of the Ministry’s Target Olympic Podium.
Currently, TOPS has four sprinters – Esow Alben, Ronaldo Singh, E David Beckham and Y Rojit Singh – in the Development Group. And if the endurance riders get on that list, they will be able to get a slightly better quality of support, especially for their rest and recovery during training and competition.