New Delhi, Jun 21 (Sports News) World junior champion and Asian record holder Ronaldo Singh progressed to the semifinals of men's sprint event but India drew a blank in six finals on the fourth day of the Asian Track Cycling Championship here on Tuesday.

Ronaldo, who had bagged the country's first-ever international medal in the 1km time trial event by claiming a bronze on Monday, advanced to the semifinals of the men's sprint event where he will challenge Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan.

Ronaldo clocked 10.394s (69.27km/hr) and 10.234s (70.353 km/hr) respectively to defeat Jee One Park of Korea in continuous two sprints.

"Tomorrow is a big day for me as I will perform in one of my favourite events, I'm ready to give my personal best to earn the medal for India. This will also show me my preparedness for upcoming Commonwealth Games," said Ronaldo.

However, none of the Indian cyclists could reach the podium in the six finals on day four of the competition.

Indian rider Esow once again failed to win his quarterfinal event of men's sprint, losing to Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan to finish empty-handed in this tournament.

Harashveer Singh Sekhon gave a good fight to Korean opponent Euro Kim and Japan's Naoki Kojima in 30,000m points race before finishing fourth with 43 points.

Hammadi Al Mirza secured gold in this event with 69 points, followed by Korea (61 points) and Japan (60 points) riders in this power event, where peddlers have to go for sprints after every 10 laps of 120 laps race.

The day did not start on a good note for the Indian team.

Junior cyclist Himanshi Singh earned second place in the 7.5km scratch race but was later disqualified on grounds of dangerous driving. She was blocked behind the Malaysian rider and in an attempt to go ahead of the Malaysian and Japanese rider, she made a technical fault and was disqualified by the Commissionaire.

The gold was won by Ci Hui Nyo of Malaysia ahead of Japan's Mizuki Ikeda and Sofiya Karimova of Uzbekistan.

Overall, India is at 5th place with two gold, five silver and 13 bronze medals. Japan leads the medal tally with 11 golds, six silver and two bronze, while the Koreans are in second position with 10 gold, nine silver, two bronze ahead of Kazakhstan, who have four gold, three silver and a bronze in their kitty. 

Also Read : Chennai Open chess: Indian IMs Srihari, Nitin among leaders

News Source : PTI