Deborah Herold creates history by becoming World No.4 in cycling

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Deborah Herold jumped six places in the latest World Elite Women Ranking released by Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) to become the highest ranked Indian woman cyclist in history. Her consistent performances have also helped the Indian team climb up to 13 and become the highest ranked Asian country in the 500m time trial, beating China at 15.

"I am happy that I am the first Indian cyclist to reach this stage, but I want to improve more. I aim to be No. 1. I would like to thank our federation and government for their continuous support. I am working hard to qualify for the Olympics now," Deborah was quoted as saying by Times of India.

Deborah collected 211 points in the 500m time trial to make this historic jump in her ranking. Back in October, she became the first ever Indian cyclist to win in the women's elite section at the 2015 Taiwan Cup, held at the Hsin Chu Velodrome. She ended the event with one gold, three silver and one bronze medal.

In the Track Asia Cup, which was a three-day event held in New Delhi last month, Deborah won a gold medal in the women's elite sprint event on the final day, beating South Korea's Cho Sun Young with a timing of 13.614 seconds. That was her third medal in the event, which helped India to a third place finish with 11 medals.

"I just want to do well, keep our medal tally increasing. That's why we compete. I am in a very happy space right now with the team. We are working hard to keep the tempo up," she told TOI back then.

The 20-year-old has faced a lot of adversity in her life, including the tsunami which decimated the Car Nicobar base in 2004. She was just nine years old back then and survived the disaster by hanging on to a tree for a whole day.

Later Deborah, who also had an interest in long jump, was trained at the Sports Authority of India (SAI) centre in Andaman, before shifting to Delhi four years back.

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