Young cycling sensation Deborah Herold won gold in the women's elite sprint event as India signed off their campaign on a high note on the final day of the Track Asia Cup at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex here on Friday.
Deborah registered a time of 13.614 seconds to edge out South Korea's Cho Sun Young (13.704) in an exciting final.
Deborah, however, missed out on a second medal as she fell down during her favourite Keiren event. On the final lap, she couldn't maintain her balance and suffered a fall. Thailand's Pannaray Rasee also lost her balance after colliding with Deborah.
"I am a bit upset that I missed a medal in one of my favourite events as I fell down. I could have won one more gold for India and I was leading, but unfortunately I fell down and couldn't win the medal for India. Anyways you improve with every tournament and I am following it. The overall performance of our teams is better," Deborah said afterwards.
"This event is a good preparation for us looking ahead two major events World Cup in Hong Kong followed by Asian Championship in Japan early next year. Before this we will also have our training camp in Switzerland from first week of December," she added.
Deborah eventually settled for a personal tally of one gold and two silver medals in the tournament. The hosts were third in the overall tally with 11 medals, including three gold, and equal number of silver and five bronze.
South Korea finished at the top with six gold, three silver and three bronze while Uzbekistan secured second place with three gold and four silver medals.
India enjoyed success in some of the other events as well with Nayana Rajesh (13.51) winning gold in the junior women's sprint event while Anu Chutia (13.822) bagged the bronze.
The silver went to Fatemeh Hadavand of Iran who clocked 13.623 seconds. Nayana led from the start and won in convincing fashion.
"Our coach R.K. Sharma told us to be calm and soft during the event and he also gave some technical tips which we followed well and due to this I won the gold and Anu won the bronze," Nayana said after the event.
In the junior men's section, Emerson bagged bronze in the sprint finals with a timing of 12.347 seconds. The gold went to Thanawat Uraikit of Thailand while Saiid Suwaidan of the United Arab Emirate (UAE) took the silver.
The men's junior team, consisting of Ranjith Singh, Sahil Kumar, Om Thalor Prakash and Sanju Udayan Abhjith claimed bronze in the team pursuit event with a time of four minutes and 46.643 seconds. Uzbekistan (4:39.630) clinched the gold while UAE (4:42.679) took silver.
