Deborah Herold overcame back pain as India put up a commendable show on the opening day of the Track Asia Cup cycling tournament, bagging six medals, which included three gold, two silver and one bronze here on Wednesday.
Deborah did not disappoint her team and took home two gold medals on day one. In the women elite 500m, Deborah won the gold, clocking 35.964 seconds. Mohd. Adnan Farina Shawati of Malaysia and Yin Yin from Hong Kong bagged the silver and bronze medals respectively.
In the Team Sprint Women Elite event, the Indian team comprising of Deborah and Kezia Vargheese beat the team from Kazakhstan to bag the gold medal with a timing of 35.962.
A bronze medal was awarded to Rajkumari Devi, due to walkover at the women elite pursuit 3kms event at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex Velodrome.
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Talking about her achievement Deborah Herold: "I was suffering from back pain from last 10 days but this has been an excellent start for me. I am hoping to keep the medal tally rising. My personal aim at the moment would be to improve my timing with every event."
In the men elite team sprint event, the team from Iran bagged the gold medal with a time of 46.330 followed by team Malaysia and team Kazakhstan bagging the silver and bronze medal respectively with timing of 47.999 and 47.641. However, the Indian men elite team finished fourth in the Team Sprint event.
The junior team lived up to the expectation of their coach R.K. Sharma by bagging a silver medal beating the team from Kazakhstan with a time of 49.299.
The junior women team bagged a gold in the Team Sprint event with Nayana Rajesh and Anu Chutia resisting Uzbekistan with a timing of 37.452.
Another star from India that rose to fame today was Alena Reji, who was taking part in her first international event. She won a silver beating Jantuganova Olga from Uzbekistan. Anis Amira from Malaysia won the gold medal in this event with a timing of 38.443.
At the end of the first day, India and Malaysia share the first spot in the medals tally with six medals each. Hong Kong with three gold and two bronze medals stands second in the tally followed by Iran with a gold.
--IANS
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