India suffered a huge blow ahead of the third edition of the Track Asia Cup, starting here tomorrow, with World No.6 cyclist Sahil Kumar being ruled out due to an injury.
Sahil, who had earlier won the Asia Track Cup in Bangkok, suffered the injury during a training camp yesterday.
"It is very unfortunate that our star performer will not be able to take part in this year's event, we will definitely miss him. But injury is a major part of any sport, we will hope that Sahil recovers fast and can join us for the next championship," India coach RK Sharma said.
India being the host is also allowed to get in an extra team of cyclists, which would include the young cyclists that have been under training at the Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy (SAINCA).
Although Sahil is ruled out, India will field a comparatively large contingent at the event, which is also the qualifier for World Championship.
All eyes will, however, be on Deborah Herold, who, having suffered an injury last year, still managed to grab five medals.
Deborah, who had earlier won five gold medals, is expected to win more medals this time around during the tournament, to be held at the Indira Gandhi sports complex velodrome.
"Deborah, undoubtedly is our key athlete and our hopes rest on her. However, this time we can expect a lot of medals from the junior team as well, who are very talented and passionate about the sport. We have a bigger contingent this year, and thus our hopes in the medal tally have also increased," Sharma said.
Besides India, 11 other countries are taking part in the competition -- Iran, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Uzbekistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Macau, Malaysia and Pakistan, who had refused to take part last year.
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