New Delhi, Jun 18 (Sports News) The smooth conduct of the Asian Track Cycling Championships, which began here on Saturday, will be at the mercy of weather Gods as possible leakage from the roof of the velodrome at the IG Stadium, in case of rain, remains a huge issue.
Since it did not rain much on Saturday, the events were held without any problem though the wooden tracks of the velodrome had to be dried up by the stadium staff and some cyclists themselves after a brief spell of rain on Friday.
The velodrome, which is certified as top level by world cycling body (UCI), is hosting the Asian Track Cycling Championships — both senior and junior — and the Para track event from Saturday till next Wednesday.
This is not the first instance of such a leakage. Just 10 days before the start of Asian Track Cycling Championship in January 2017, the wooden tracks of the same velodrome were damaged due to leakage from the roof after heavy downpour lashed the national capital.
Sports Authority of India (SAI) on Saturday blamed Central Public Works Department (CPWD) for the rainwater leakage on Friday.
SAI Executive Director (Stadia) Shiv Sharma said that the government cannot spend money on this again as it is the responsibility of the CPWD to fix the problem as they have given a 15-year warranty.
"The CPWD has a 15-year warranty for the stadium as they were given the contracts to build the stadium during the 2010 Delhi CWG. Such leaks have happened in the past also and we have repeatedly written to them on this issue, the latest being this month," he said.
"But they have been saying that they have raised the issue with the contractor who built the roof of the velodrome and they are not responsible." The run-up to the championships was marred by a controversy when a junior woman cyclist had levelled allegations of "inappropriate behaviour" against chief coach RK Sharma during a foreign exposure tour of Slovenia.
The coach was sacked in a prompt action by the SAI but the incident left the sporting world shocked.
The limelight was back on the sport as a 36-member Indian Cycling team and eight para cyclists compete in the 41st Senior, 28th Junior Asian Track and 10th Para Track Cycling Championships — which will be held simultaneously at the Indoor Cycling Velodrome here.
All eyes will be on Indian stars such as Esow, Ronaldo Singh, David Beckham, Vishwajeet Singh, Trishya Paul, Mayuri Lute and Meenakshi during the five-day event.
After the withdrawal of China, Nepal and Mongolia, there are 15 countries participating in the event including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkmenistan, UAE & Uzbekistan.
Korea, Malaysia, Japan and Kazakhstan have the best performing riders and it will be a tough competition where all the riders will try to earn maximum points to improve their ranking.
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News Source : PTI
