India enjoyed a successful outing at the Asian Track Cycling Championship with two bronze medals here on Monday.
Ronaldo Singh bagged the country’s first-ever international medal in the 1km time trial event. After three days, India has 20 medals in the kitty.
World junior champion and Asian record holder Ronaldo pedalled the cycle with a speed of 58.254 km/hr and clocked 1:01.798s to come in the leaderboard.
He won the bronze medal in the 1km time trial event of men’s senior category. This was his and India’s first-ever medal in this event.
Yuta Obara of Japan won gold with 1:01.118s (speed 59.902 km/h), Malaysia’s cyclist Mohammad Fadhil clocked 1:01.639s to claim the silver.
“I came here for the gold but had to be satisfied with bronze. I just repeated my last year performance which was not enough for gold, to change the colour of medal.
“I have to focus more on my technique,” Ronaldo said.
About his Olympic plans, Ronaldo added, “I would like to build a team for the team sprint event where we have already won a world junior medal. It would give more exposure to the Indian cycling team, paving the way for versatility in our performance as a nation.”
Another bronze was added by Birjit Yumnam who pulled away from Ilya Karabutov (Kazakhstan) and Amir Ali (Iran) after 35 laps to claim the third position in the 40-lap race of 10km in men’s junior category.
Hwarang KIM of Korea secured the gold, while Zulfahmi Aiman of Malaysia finished second.
