Cyclist Ronaldo scripts history in Asian c'ships

Ronaldo Singh on Wednesday scripted history as he became the first Indian cyclist to win a silver in a continental tournament in the senior category by finishing second in the sprint event on the concluding day of the Asian Track Championship in New Delhi.

Ronaldo's feat was the best performance by any Indian cyclist in a continental championship. He gave a tough fight to Japan's experienced rider Kento Yamasaki but finished with a silver.

Yamasaki defeated Ronaldo in back-to-back races to finish at the top of the podium. Kazakhstan's Andrey Chugay won the bronze in the event.

"This (Ronaldo's silver) was the first silver won by an Indian in Asian Championships. No Indian has won a gold in our history, so his silver winning feat is the best ever performance by an Indian in continental championships," Cycling Federation of India chairman Onkar Singh told PTI.

Singh is also the secretary general of Asian Cycling Confederation.

Ronaldo's silver on Wednesday was his third medal of the championships. He had earlier won bronze medals in 1km time trial and team sprint events.

In the morning, Ronaldo defeated Kazakhstan's Chugay in the semi-final. The Indian lost the first race but bounced back to win the next two to storm into the final.

"Gold was in my mind but I'm also happy with the first-ever silver. This is the best ever performance of my career. In every tournament I improved my technique, this is most important," Ronaldo said.

On Tuesday, world junior champion and Asian record holder Ronaldo created a national record in 200m flying time trial by breaching the 10 seconds barrier on way to the semifinals of men's Elite sprint race event.

The home team won one silver and two bronze medals on the final day.

Indian junior cyclist Birjit Yumnam won a bronze in 15km Points Race with 23 points. Korea's Sungyeon Lee won the silver with 24 points while Farrukh Bobosherov of Uzbekistan grabbed the gold.

The big surprise of the day was 19-year-old Chayanika Gogoi, who opened the Indian tally with a bronze over Kazakhstan's medal favourite Rinata Sultanova in 10km Women Scratch Race finals. Youri Kim won the gold while Kie Furuyama of Japan clinched the silver.

The Asian Junior and Para championships were also being held simultaneously at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium veledrome.

There were a handful of crashes on the final day which saw 10 finals.

Japan topped the combined medal tally with 18 gold, seven silver and two bronze.

In the world class field, the Indian cycling team finished fifth with 23 medals (2 Gold, 6 Silver, 15 Bronze).

Korea finished second with 12 gold, 14 silver and three bronze medals while Kazakhstan secured third place with four gold, four silver and three bronze.

Indian freestyle wrestlers claim Asian team title in U-17 category

Indian freestyle wrestlers won the team title at the under-17 Asian Championship in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan by finishing with eight medals, including four gold.

Apart from the four gold, the Indians also bagged two silver and two bronze medals.

The Indians clinched three gold, one silver and two bronze medals in freestyle on Wednesday.

The Indian freestyle team won the Asian Championships trophy with 188 points, while Kazakhstan finished runner-up with 150 points. Uzbekistan took the third spot with 145 points. 

The Indian gold winners on Wednesday were Ningappa (45kg), Shubham (48kg) and Vaibhav Patil (55kg), while Pratik Deshmukh (110kg) bagged the silver and Narsingh Patil (51kg) and Sourabh (60kg) clinched a bronze each.

The competition in Under-23 category will start on Thursday with Greco Roman style events.

Misfiring Deepika falters on India comeback, slips to 37th in qualifying round

Star archer Deepika Kumari failed to impress in the qualifying round in her much-anticipated return, finishing a lowly 37th behind Ankita Bhakat in the World Cup Stage 3 in Paris on Wednesday.

The World No 3 Deepika, who was making her India comeback after the Tokyo Olympics debacle last year, shot a disappointing 638 in the 72-arrow qualification round, a massive 37-point behind Korean Lee Gahyun who took the pole position in the women's recurve section.

Her poor ranking meant that Deepika got a tough draw as the former world number one will have a potential second round clash against Korean Choi Misun, the 2016 Rio Olympics team gold medallist. Deepika will face Italian Chiara Rebagliati in her first round.

The three-time Olympian was a picture of inconsistency. Having started off with four 10s, including two X (closest the centre) and a 9, Deepika hit the black ring (4) and even misfired in the last arrow of the fifth end.

There was more frustration in store for her as she ended the first-half by shooting twice in the red ring (7-7). At the halfway mark, she managed just 323 points.

At the same time, she shot 18 perfect 10s at the halfway mark, which was just one behind Gahyun, something that summed up Deepika's inconsistency on the day.

Under pressure, Deepika slipped further in the final set of 36 arrows, where she managed just 315 points, after hitting five 7s and one 6 to end her qualifying round. She had a share of 11 perfect 10s in the final-half.

At 31st place, Ankita (644) was the best among the Indian women as she made the mixed pair team with 27th placed Tarundeep Rai (670), with the duo taking the 13th ranking.

Pravin Jadhav, who too made a comeback after his Tokyo Olympics debacle, finished 30th with 668 points, while veteran Jayanta Talukdar (667) took the 32nd spot as the recurve men's team secured the eight seeding in the draw.

The recurve women's team, on the other hand, slipped to 13th place.

Earlier, the Indian women's compound team lost the bronze play-off to France while the men's team made a quarterfinal exit after losing to Turkey.

A day after World Championship silver medallist Jyothi Surekha Vennam raised the expectation with a second-place finish, the women's trio of Jyothi, Priya Gurjar and Muskan Kirar lost 228-231 to Britain in the semi-final.

Fighting for the bronze, the team squandered a two-point lead to lose 231-233 to their French opponents Sophie Dodemont, Lola Grandjean and Sandra Herve.

Having got a bye into the quarter-finals, the third seeded Indian women's team had started off by eliminating their Brazilian rivals 230-227.

The men's team of Abhishek Verma, Mohan Bhardwaj and Aman Saini began with a 234-232 win over South Africa but suffered a one-point defeat against Turkey, going down 234-235.

SAI approves star wrestler Bajrang's US training, TOPS cyclists to get faster T20 bikes

The Sports Ministry's Mission Olympic Cell (MOC) on Wednesday approved Tokyo Olympic bronze medallist Bajrang Punia's 35-day training camp in the United States ahead of Commonwealth Games.

The Target Olympic Podium Scheme (TOPS) would be funding Bajrang's travel, boarding and daily costs towards training camp in Michigan, USA from June 25 till July 30. TOPS would also take care of expenses for his personal coach and physiotherapist.

The training stint in the USA will help Bajrang prepare for the upcoming Birmingham Games and the World Championships. 

The MOC also approved financial assistance towards the procurement of two T20 Proteam Look TT track bikes for TOPS development cyclists Ronaldo Singh and David Beckhame.

The T20 bikes are new top-of-the-range track bikes that were also used by the French national team at the Tokyo Olympics.

"The bike is said to be lighter, stiffer, and more aerodynamically efficient than its predecessors. The mentioned bikes will also help the athletes prepare for the forthcoming Commonwealth Games this year," the SAI statement read.

Besides, the MOC also approved financial assistance for country's ace table tennis player Sharath Kamal towards his support staff fees, fitness training, physiotherapy, rehab and fitness testing and nutritionist.

The MOC also approved financial assistance for shooter Anish Bhanwala towards foreign training and competition in Germany at the Shooting Sport Center, Suhl for 20 days.

Anish will be training under pistol coach Ralf Schumann in Germany and prepare for the upcoming competitions.

Chennai Open chess: Indian IM Nitin, Baghdasaryan in joint lead

International Master Nitin Senthilvel of India is in joint lead with Armenian GM Vahe Baghdasaryan with five points after the fifth round of the 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2022 in Chennai on Wednesday.

Half a point behind the leaders with 4.5 points are GMs Boris Savchenko  (Russia), the top-seed, Tran Tuan Minh (Vietnam), Alexei Federov and Kirill Stupak (both Belarus) apart from IM Srijit Paul (India), IM Abdyjapar Asyl (Kyrgyzstan) and B Vignesh.

Chennai lad Vignesh continued his fine run with a win over Grandmaster R R Laxman in the fifth round today. With his third successive GM opponent Vignesh has logged in 2.5/3 having defeated GM Nguyen Van Huy (Vietnam) and drawn with GM Fedorov Alexei (Belarus) in the previous two rounds.

The field for the 275-player 10-round Swiss tournament includes 11 Grandmasters and 14 International Masters among 36 titled players. The tournament carries a total prize money of Rs 15 lakh.

Results: Round 5 (Indians unless specified) :  Srijit Paul (4.5) drew with Boris Savchenko (Russia) 4.5, Kirill Stupak (Belarus) 4.5 drew with Abdyjapar Asyl (Kyrgyzstan) 4.5, Nitin S (5) beat Jubin Jimmy (4),  Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia) 5 beat L R Srihari (4), Alexei Federov (4.5) beat Ravichandran Siddharth (3.5), Aaryan Varshney (3.5) lost to Tran  Tuan Minh (Vietnam) 4.5, Murali Krishnan B T (4.0) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy J (4), Harshit Pawar (4) drew with Ajay Karthikeyan (4), Rajesh V A V (4.0) drew with P Saravana Krishnan (4), R  R Laxman 3 lost to B Vignesh (4.5), Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vietnam) 4 beat Jani Kushal R 3.