Esow Alben makes history, Ronaldo Singh sets new national record at Track Cycling World Championships 2022
Cycling athletes from India, particularly Esow Alben and Ronaldo Singh, performed admirably at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2022, which were held in San Quentin, France from October 12 to 16. This follows a dismal performance at the Commonwealth Games 2022, where they failed to do well.
Esow Alben made history as he qualified for the senior Track Cycling World Championships semifinals for the first time ever as an Indian. The Indian rider was competing for the first time at the senior level of the track cycling world championships. The 21-year-old from the Andaman and Nicobar islands placed 12th overall in the men's keirin competition, but not before creating a new record.
HeĀ was destined for an early departure after finishing fifth in Heat 4 of the first round in his senior global championship debut. However, a significantly improved performance in the first round repechage, when he placed second in Heat 3, allowed him to advance to the quarterfinals.
Esow Alben qualified for the semifinals after placing third in Heat 2 of the quarterfinals. Another outstanding performance came from the Indian in the semifinal race, as she just missed qualifying for the Final A by 0.005 seconds. The Indian cyclist, who qualified for the Final B to decide positions 7 through 12, came in last and took up position 12.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo Singh Laitonjam, who finished second in the 200m flying time trial at the Asian Championships, set a new national record in the men's sprint qualifying round with a time of 9.910s. He failed to advance to the following round, which was only open to the top 28, finishing in 31st place instead.
While the trio of Alban, Esow, and Rojit Singh placed 16th in the qualifying round of the men's team sprint event, David Beckham placed 24th in the men's 1 km time trial event.