The Hindu : Cycling: Nijappa gives AP its first gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 21, 2002

Sport

Sport - National Games

Cycling: Nijappa gives AP its first gold

By Abhijit Sen Gupta

HYDERABAD DEC. 20. Nijappa Yentethu gave Andhra Pradesh its first gold in the cycling events of the 32nd National Games when he raced to victory in a hard fought 120 km road race conducted on National Highway 7 near Medchal on the outskirts of Hyderabad this morning.

In a very closely fought race only a fraction of a second separated the first three finishers. Nijappa clocked 3 hrs 13 minutes 13.964 seconds while second placed teammate J.Mahender Reddy clocked 3 hrs 13 minutes 26.965 seconds and third placed T.H.Jefferson Singh of Manipur timed 3 hours 13 minutes 26.968 seconds. Although timing is not an important factor in a road race, it did indicate the closeness of the contest. Another AP cyclist Ch.Sai Krishna was fourth. For Mahender Reddy a 20-year old trainee of the cycling academy in Karimnagar, this was his first medal in a big meet.

Considering that it was a long distance race comprising of four laps of 30 kms each, the close finish was a surprise. Nijappa a 22-year old employee of South Central Railway was very obviously thrilled with his win.

"I was determined to win today especially after we lost very narrowly to Punjab in the team race yesterday , he said.'' " I recieved a lot of help and support from my friends and I owe this victory to them,'' he added.

The sacrifices made by the AP cyclists, coaches and officials all contributed in some measure to this win. For example it was learnt that one of the AP cyclists Vijay Singh Rajput who was also participating in this race had lent Nijappa his high quality "Spinnergy'' wheels to Nijappa to help him to perform better.

The long and hard training at the preparatory camps spread out over six months took a lot of effort from all the cyclists and coaches Messers Dilip Kumar, Richard Clark, Chandra Reddy, Sadanand Ramesh Bahu. Former international cyclist Maxwell Trevor who is the manager of the team chipped in with his expertise and it all paid off in the end. After the victrory in today's race there were scenes of jubilation all around. Several officials and cyclists had tears in their eyes as they hugged each other.

Cycling is one of the sports in which the host State was not allowed to bring in participants from other States and therefore had to depend entirely upon its own participants to bring in medals. The host State succeeded in getting one gold, five silvers and two bronze medals at the end of the events.

Incidentally the name Yentethu means "one with the strength of eight bulls'' and Nijappa fully lived up to his name today in a race which was hard fought from start to finish. Top road race cyclists from Punjab, Services amd Manipur were in the fray but eventually AP managed to wrest the gold and silver.

The results :

120 km road race : 1. Nijappa Yentethu (AP) 3 hrs 13 min 26.964 sec; 2. J.Mahender Reddy (AP) 3 hr 13 min 26.965 sec; 3. T.H. Jefferson Singh (Manipur) 3 hr 13 min 26.968 sec.

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