The Hindu : Sport / Cycling : National track meet from today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 22, 2004

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Sport - Cycling

National track meet from today

Hyderabad nov. 21. The star-studded Punjab Police outfit is favoured to retain the team title in the men's section of the BSA National track cycling championship that is all set to get underway at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh's velodrome at the Osmania University campus here from Monday. Last year when the championship was held at Ludhiana Punjab Police had won the overall title with 69 points.

But the teams which are likely to give the police outfit a hard fight include Railways, Punjab, Services and BSNL while Kerala also has a few good cyclists who could garner a few medals for the State.

In the women's section the main fight is likely to be between Railways, Manipur and Andaman and Nicobar islands. It will be interesting to see which of these outfits manages to get the top honours. Last year Railways had won the team title with 34 points in the womens section. Cyclists from Kerala may also do well in the junior sections.

In the junior and sub junior sections youngsters from Punjab are expected to put up a good performance once again. The state has a good tradition in this sport and some of the best riders of the country have come from Punjab.

The host Andhra Pradesh's hopes rest on the performances of Udale Clark, captain of the mens team. AP may also get some medals in the junior sections where Suresh and Dharma Teja are riders with a lot of potential.

On the eve of the meet the velodrome with a fresh coat of pain looked spick and span and a cross section of the coaches felt that it was very likely that several records would be broken thanks to the nature of the track which was very fast and could help the sprinters and those cyclists who have a strong finish. — Our Special Correspondent

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