Punjab cyclists upstage fancied rivals

By Our Sports Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, DEC. 28. Cyclists from Punjab and Manipur hogged the limelight on a truncated third day of the 54th senior, 31st junior and 17th sub-junior National cycling championships at the LNCPE velodrome, Kariyavattom, on Thursday. After Wednesday's washout, the eternal wait for the events to begin finally ended when the proceedings got underway at 10-30 a.m. this morning.

There was a lot of drama in the day's first event-the 1500m time trial-which saw Punjab upset the form book. Pre-race favourites Railways and Punjab Police came a cropper as the Punjab quartet of Hitraj Singh, Pavitar Singh, Randeep Singh and Tejenderjeet Singh paced their race perfectly to clock 1:50.28.

Railways, represented by the same side which set the existing National record for the event at 1:45.79 early this year, disappointed and came second in 1:52.16. Host Kerala won the bronze in 1:54.17. The Punjab Police side, which at one stage was on course for the gold, was infact unlucky when its cyclist Varmeet Singh had to drop out of the race after a chain slip.

In the women's section, Manipur took the gold as expected while Andaman & Nicobar and Kerala finished second and third respectively. Manipur girls (Geetanjali, Rameshwori Devi, Bina Kumari Devi and Dinita) clocked 2:16.48 to top the field. Kerala lost a good chance of running Manipur close when its best rider V. Rajani had to drop out early due to mechanical failure. Andaman clocked 2:17.80 for the silver and Kerala 2:17.92 for the bronze.

Punjab also won the boys' 1500m team time trial gold in the under-18 category, clocking 1:57.52, nearly four seconds ahead of second-placed Maharashtra (2:01.57) and Kerala (2:03.32) which came third.

Yet another mechanical failure to Rajani put paid to Kerala's hopes of turning the tables on Manipur in the girls' under-18 1500m team time trial event. The hub of Rajani's cycle broke and she had to pull out early and thus a weakened Kerala side had to be content with third. Manipur (Choaba Devi, Goutamani Devi, Dinita and Nita) clocked 2:16.19 for the gold while Maharashtra took the silver in 2:19.57.

All the favourites made it to the 1000m sprint quarterfinals without much fuss. Rain in the evening brought an abrupt end to the proceedings.

Overage issue crops up again

Meanwhile, after physical and radiological tests, three cyclists- Gurpal Kaur (Punjab), Giridhar Gopal (Rajasthan) and N. Nonglenkhombai Meitei (Manipur)-were found to be overaged by the medical committee. They were promptly debarred from the competitions.

The results of the 500m time trial for boys' and girls' under-14, held on the opening day, were announced today, while the organisers are yet to announce the final placings of the under-16 500m time trial in both sections as well as the results of the team events in the junior categories which were conducted today.

The results (all finals):

Men: 1500m team time trial: 1. Punjab (Hitraj Singh, Pavitar Singh, Randeep Singh, Tejinderjeet Singh), 1:50.28, 2. Railways (Rakesh Kumar, Premjeet Singh, Gurnam Singh, Fulbirth), 1:52.16, 3. Kerala (A.R. Sajikumar, M. Vishnu Chand, S.V. Ramesh, Ajesh T. Thomas), 1:54.17.

Boys: Under-18: 1500m time trial: 1. Punjab (Sukhjinder Singh, Amrinder Singh, Parminder Singh Brar, Gurmeet Singh), 1:57.52, 2. Maharashtra (Abey Wagholikar, Milind Jogde, Uttam Nallai, Swapnil Jadhav), 2:01.57, 3. Kerala (R.L. Manoj, N. Jaikrishnan, Prince Hylen, R. Renjith), 2:03.32.

Under-14: 1000m mass start: 1. Sweden (Andaman & Nicobar), 1:30.20, 2. Abishek Rana (Rajasthan), 1:30.50, 3. Raninder Singh (Punjab), 1:30.55. 500m time trial: 1. Sweden (Andaman & Nicobar), 39.14s, 2. S.H. Shanjit Kumar (Maharashtra), 42.57s, 3. S.R. Vineesh (Kerala), 43.10s.

Women: 1500m team time trial: 1. Manipur (G. Geetanjali, C.H. Rameshwori Devi, O. Bina Kumari Devi, H. Dinita), 2:16.48, 2. Andaman (Gatshie, Cicily, Eva, Elizabeth), 2:17.80, 3. Kerala (K.S. Maya, V. Rajani, R. Seema, Anitha Andrews), 2:17.92.

Girls: Under-18: 1500m team time trial 1. Manipur (N. Choaba Devi, I. Goutamani Devi, N. Dinita, T. Nita), 2:16.19, 2. Maharashtra (Pratima Losai, Meenakshi Shinde, Sonali Patil, Rajshree Kadam), 2:19.57, 3. Kerala (V.S. Sheetal, H. Suman, V. Rajani, T.V. Soumya), 2:21.39.

Under-14: 500m time trial: 1. Gurpreet Kaur (Punjab), 45.52s, 2. S. Saritha (Kerala), 45.80s, 3. Gathsi (Andaman & Nicobar), 47.03s.

The Punjab quartet of Hitraj Singh, Pavitar Singh, Randeep Singh and Tejinderjeet Singh which won the men's 1500m team time trial in the National cycling championships in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.

The Manipur foursome (Goutamani Devi, Choaba Devi, T. Nita and Dinita), winner of the girls' under-18 1500m team time trial event.

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