New Delhi: Cycling Federation of India will host second edition of Track Asia Cup 2015 from 18th -20th November 2015 at the Indoor Cycling Velodrome at IG Sports Complex in New Delhi. The announcement was made during a press conference held at Hotel Le Meridian in New Delhi today.
The UCI class 1 graded event which in other words is part of the Olympic qualifier whereby points attained by the cyclist will add to the ranking of the individual and thus makes it more competitive and interesting.
The first edition of this event hosted in India in 2014 saw the participation of four countries while this time the number has considerably gone up to 10 countries and one continental team. Also, being the host country, India has decided to field two additional teams in this event to give more and more exposure to young cyclists in the country. These two teams are SAINCA and CFI. SAINCA is the cycling Academy being managed jointly by Sports Authority of India and Cycling Federation of India at cycling velodrome, whereby mostly junior cyclists from across the country are being trained.
The event will see total participation of thirteen teams from 10 countries including one continental team i.e. Team ASTANA has also made important entry. The ten countries are Kazakhstan, Hong Kong, Korea, Uzbekistan, Bangladesh, Thailand, Iran, UAE, Nepal and India. More than 150 cyclists from different countries will compete in this event for the top honours.
Onkar Singh, Secretary General, Cycling Federation of India said, "The preparations are done for the Track Asia Cup and we are expecting a spectacular event this time where in top Asian cyclists will be competing for the Olympic and 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 that is the reason we have decided to field our two additional academy teams in this event, so that our cyclists can get more exposure while competing against top asian cyclists".
Frederick Chang of Hong Kong has been appointed the Chief Commissiare of the event by the UCI (International Cycling Union) while other 30 Indian commissaries and technical officials will be officiating in this Asian Cycling extravaganza.
With the plan to attract more and more spectators to come and cheer the Indian cyclists, the federation has decided that entry to watch the live action will be free for all.
20 Member Indian team to compete in the Track Asia Cup
The 20 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, Kazakhstan, Iran and Hong Kong. India's Deborah who had won several medals in the last two editions of Track Asia Cup at Taiwan and Bangkok 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.
Deborah a tsunami survivor from Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been showing consistent improvement in timings. She has constantly being in the camp for the last two years after she was picked up by the CFI as junior and has now risen to be ranked 10th in the world in the time trial events in the very first year of her senior category. This would not be out of place to mention that except Mexican cyclists who is ranked 8th in the list. All the other ranked cyclists are much older to her.
The strong Indian junior contingent will also fight for their place at the podium. Sahil Kumar who received Gold at the Asia Track Cup in Bangkok is the best bet in the junior boys while the team sprint team in the girls section is also a great hope for the Indian side.
In all the performance of the Indian team under the able guidance of the UCI’s qualified Chief coach Mr. R.K Sharma will be quite commendable and we look forward much better performance than from the previous years.
