Pune: Host’s Maharashtra opened their account when their Under-19 boys rode to a dominating victory in the grueling Team Trial event on the second day of the 16th National Road Cycling Championship at the 8-kilometer Grade Separator between Nashik Phata and Nigdi, in PCMC, on Friday.
In an early morning start to the day, the Maharashtra spearheaded by Mahindra V, Abhinandan Bhosale, P Ganesh and Swapnil Mane rode past the finish line clocking 54 minutes 25.055 seconds in the 48 kilometer race.
The hosts effort was more than a minute clear of second placed Haryana (55 minutes; 30.090s). Karnataka took third place coming in at 56 minutes 10.030s.
Overall, Maharashtra had a field day as their women bagged a silver in the 26 kilometer Team trial event losing out to the Kerala eves. Maharashtra represented by Deepali Shildhinkar, Yogita Shildhinkar, Deepali Shinde and Shruti Gaikwad cocked 44 minutes 37.04s.
Kerala won the event clocking 43 minutes 27.13secs, while Haryana took third place.
The third event completed in the day was the 64-kilometer Team Trian for men which was claimed by the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) followed by Bihar and Railways respectively.
The day saw the event complete 3 of the 10 events lined up as the organizers Maharashtra Cycling Association (MCA) were forced to end the event by the traffic police on technical grounds.
Onkar Singh, Honorary General Secretary Cycling Federation of India, under whom the event is being conducted by MCA, informed, “The issue was about the location of today’s programme and the time allotted to conduct the event. We are looking at an alternate location and the events in this edition of the championship will be completed over the duration of the meet.”
RESULTS
Men: 64-km Team Trial: 1-SSCB (Gurmeet Singh, Ameet, Amresh Singh, Vyas Ravishankar; 1 hour 10 min 22ses); 2-Bihar (Sandeep Kumar, Dharmendra, Devendra, Hariram Yadav; 1 hr 11 min 44sec); 3-Railways (Harpreet Singh, Rajendra Bisnoi, Lakhappa Kurni, Ram Swaroop; 1 hr 12 min 38 sec)
Women: 26-km Team Trial: 1-Kerala (Kezia Verghese, Krishnendu T Krishna, Deepa Chandran V, Vinaya Vijayan; 43 minutes 27.13 secs); 2-Maharastra (Deepali Shildhinkar, Yogita Shildhinkar, Deepali Shinde Shruti Gaikwad; 44 minutes 37.04s); 3-Haryana (Suman, Seema Rani, Monika Devi, Promila; 45 minutes; 01.47s)
Boys; Under-19 48-Km Team Trial; 1-Maharashtra (Mahindra V, Abhinandan Bhosale, P Ganesh, Swapnil Mare; 54 minutes 25.55secs); 2-Haryana (Deepak Kumar, Manjeet, Jagdeep, Pawan Kumar; 55 minutes 30.090s); 3-Karnataka (Atif Attar, Sachin Kumar, Sridhar S, Sigappa Kurni; 56 minutes 10.030secs)
