The Indian national anthem rang out for the first time at the award ceremony of the Junior Track Cycling World Championships as Esow Alben, L Ronaldo Singh, Y Rojit Singh and Jemsh Singh stepped on to the podium late on Wednesday evening. The Indian boys’ sprint team were making history—this was India’s first gold at a world cycling event, senior or junior. Esow, Ronaldo and Rojit dominated the 250m, steeply banked wooden track as the five-day tournament got underway at the Oderlandhalle velodrome in Frankfurt. They were the fastest during qualifying, clocking 45.094 seconds at an impressive average speed of 59.87km/hr. This was followed by an easy first round victory over China, where the timing dropped further to 44.764. The final was a stunner. Australia led the first two laps, only for India to flash by at an astonishing 12.915 seconds in the final lap—the fastest lap by any team in the competition—to take gold with a total time of 44.625, yet again bettering their earlier mark. The Indian boys make for a crack team; Ronaldo, Rojit and Jemsh come from Manipur, Esow from Nicobar. All four were also part of the team which won gold in men’s team sprint at the Asian Championships in Jakarta in January, creating a new Asian record. Ronaldo is ranked at No 4 and No 8 in junior sprint and keirin rankings. Esow, 18, is No 1 in both.
