New Delhi: On February 6, the Cycling Federation of India will host the Saksham Asian Track Cycling Championship which will be in its 37th edition at IGI Sports Complex, New Delhi.
The Cycling Federation of India (CFI) has the honor of holding this event for the third time, after 2005 and 2013. This will be for the first time that the Asian Track Cycling Championship will be held separately from the Road Championship, Bahrain will be hosting the Road championship in the later part of February 2017.
Eighteen countries, will be participating in these championships. The highly competitive field includes China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Macau China, Malaysia, Mongolia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Taiwan, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and India.
Brian Cookson, President, UCI will be the Guest of Honor at this event. He will be present on February 9 and 10 to witness the races.
The UCI class 1 Grade championships are also the qualifying competitions for the World championship qualifiers. Points gained by the cyclists in this event will add to their ranking. This will lead the competitive edge to the Asian Track championships this time too. The championships will serve as the platform for the cyclists in fray to improve their World Ranking and make the cut for the 2017 UCI Track Cycling World Championships to be held from April 12 and 16 at Hong Kong.
Before the world championship at Hong Kong, India’s women teams will participate in the two World Cup events in February at Cali, Columbia and Los Angles, USA.
In the Asian Track championships, more than 500 cyclists in the category of Men Elite, Women Elite, Men Junior and Women Junior will be eying for top honors. The Cycling Federation of India is fielding a strong 35 member Indian team in all categories.
Awang of Malaysia is 2016 Olympic Bronze Medalist in Keirin race and Ms. Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong is 2012 Olympic Bronze Medalist in keirin event will be the star attraction of the event.
Peter Joseph Zachary Prendergast of New Zealand has been appointed the Chief Commissar of the event by the UCI. Four other International Technical personnel appointed by ACC and 30 Indian commissaries and technical officials will be officiating in the Asian Track Cycling extravaganza.
Dharmendra Pradhan, Honorable Minister of State, Petroleum & Natural Gas will be the chief guest during opening ceremony on 6th Feb. 2017, while Vijay Goel, Honorable Minister of State (I/C), Youth Affairs & Sports will be the chief guest and Injeti Srinivas, IAS, Secretary, Sports will preside over the closing function, whereby Brian Cookson, President, UCI will be the guest of honor.
This flagship event of the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC) has been awarded to India this time. The line up of the team of talent in Asia will include a few Olympic medalists who will also vie for the honors in various individual and team events.
The formidable teams from Asia in cycling are China, Japan, Korea and Kazakhstan. In fact, they are the star attraction in this championship.
India's challenge will be lead by the talented Deborah, who is currently ranked 6th in the World as per International Cycling Union (UCI) ranking in Time trial event of women elite, the Junior Indianteam in team sprint, currently ranked No 1 in the world, and a few otherjunior cyclists ranked in the first 15 in the world. Their performance will be watched with great interest and with the CFI is keen for preparing them for qualification in the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
In the last four years this Indian team has spectacularly increased its ranking in the world. Their race for qualification for the 2020 Olympic Games will begin in this championship.
Shri Onkar Singh, Secretary General, Cycling Federation of India said, "We have already successfully conducted first and second edition of the event and this time most of the Indian Junior Cyclists are under top 10 in UCI World Ranking. After opening of SAINCA ‘SAI National Cycling Academy’ & World Cycling Satellite Centre in New Delhi, there is a lot of improvement in the performance of Indian Cyclists.Our Coach R.K. Sharma is also working hard to give a good shape to Indian Cyclists.
He also said that the preparations are done for the Asian Track CyclingChampionship and we are expecting a spectacular event this time where in top Asian cyclists will be competing for the World Cup qualifications. I would like to wish good luck to all the participants in this event. Our Indian cyclists have worked hard in preparing for this event and I am confident that they will perform well in front of the home crowd. CFI is fully committed to the development and promotion of the sport in India and expecting a good show from our Star performers.
35 Member Indian team to compete in the Asian Track Cycling Championship
The 35 member strong Indian team will participate in this event comprising of all the section of ME, WE, MJ and WJ to give a tough competition to the world class teams of Korea and Malaysia. India's Deborah who had won several medals at the International level is all set to give tough competition to the opponent teams while the Indian sprints boys and girls teams are also ready for making historic wins this time.
Indian top performer, Deborah, role model for young cyclists is ready to give her best performance. She has constantly being in the camp for the last three years after she was picked up by the CFI as junior and has now risen to be ranked 11th in the world in the time trial events. Anu Chutia, Amritha Reghunathan, Nayana Rajesh, Sahil Kumar, Sachin Desai are also strong part of India and can surprise to opponents.
Deborah told on the evening that “I don’t say, I’m the best but I do my best” and this is only key for my success. My life is cycling and the pedaling is in my mind by 24x7. My dream is to podium finish in World Championship and I’m sure that the day is not so far.
Indian Team is under the safe hands of UCI’s qualified Chief coach Mr. R.K Sharma who is quite commendable and we look forward much better performance than from the previous years.
