Manorama shines, Deborah sparkles

 India finished the track races in the Hero Asian Cycling Championships on a high with Manorama Devi and Deborah winning silver medals at the Indira Gandhi cycling velodrome on Monday.

Andaman girl Deborah bagged the first silver medal for India in sprint event before Manipur's Manorama stunned everyone with her sensational run in the last 30 metres of the keirin event to snatch second silver for the country. 
 
"Initially my plan was to go up and come down but I changed the tactics in the last minute which helped me to win silver. I am very happy today,’’ said Manorama.

Manorama finished 0.131 seconds behind gold winner Shiou Yu Cheng of Taipei but beat Korean Yonhee Jang, who finished 0.009 seconds behind, for a bronze.

At the bell, both the Indians – Deborah and Manorama were the last of the six riders but the 16-year-old from Manipur kept the nerves to come up with a burst of speed. In fact, both the Koreans were ahead at the 250 meter point. But Manorama manoeuvred her way through a tight opening. 

In the keirin event, a motorcyclist controls the race for the first five laps followed by the riders. The bike rider leaves the track free for the cyclists to complete the race in the eight-lap event.    

Earlier in the day, Deborah created history by winning the first silver medal for India in an individual category, losing out to Korea’s Yeonhee Jang in sprint event. After a day’s rest, the action will shift to the Buddha International Circuit for the road races.

Korea in lead

Meanwhile, the Koreans topped the medal chart with 12 gold, seven silver and seven bronze for a total of 26 medals.

Malaysia were the big movers on the last day of the track races, displacing Hong Kong from the second spot with 7 gold, 3 silver and 6 bronze. Hong Kong came in third with 7 gold, two silver and one bronze medals. India finished at ninth place with two silver and two bronze.