The Hindu : Sport / Cycling : Punjab Police clinches gold

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004

Sport

Sport - Cycling

Punjab Police clinches gold

By Our Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD, NOV. 22. Punjab Police took the gold in the men's 1500 metres team time trial on the opening day of the BSA National track cycling championships, which got underway here on Monday. Host AP had a good day, picking up one gold and one bronze medal and finishing a creditable fourth in the men's team time trial.

The Punjab Police quartet in the team time trial comprised Sarabjit Singh, Gurpreet Singh, Pavittar Singh and Prabhjit Singh. It clocked 1 minute 43.79 seconds to pip arch-rival Railways to the second spot. The Police outfit was clearly thrilled with the victory.

"I am very happy to have won," said Punjab Police coach Kanwarjit Singh. "We came here without two of our best riders. Kulbir Singh, who broke the record here two years ago has left the sport and Sukhjinder Singh has joined Railways. So we were not sure of winning. Railways had a strong team. But my boys put in a lot of hard work and it paid off in the end," he said.

Railways, represented by Indra Kumar Singh, Probin Singh, Gurmit Singh and Sai Krishna clocked 1 minute 45.01 seconds. Third was Punjab, represented by Harpreet Singh, Raninder Singh, Abhishek Sharma and Sarpreet Singh. Host Andhra Pradesh was fourth.

AP took the gold in the boys' under-16 section. The AP boys were B. Roopesh, K. Satish Kumar, Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy and K. Dharma Teja. Coach Chandra Reddy said that he had a lot of faith in his boys and they lived up to his expectations.

The experienced Vishnu Chand gave Kerala the gold in the Devil Take Hindmost race, which was an interesting event wherein the last placed rider at the end of each lap, had to drop out. In the final lap only two cyclists were left and Vishnu Chand pipped Kamaljeet Singh of Punjab Police for the gold.

The results:

Devil Take Hindmost race: 1. Vishnu Chand (Kerala), 2. Kamaljeet Singh (Punjab Police), 3. Indra Kumar (Railways).

1500m team time trials: finals: Men: Punjab Police (1:43.79s), 2. Indian Railways (1:45.01), 3. Punjab (1:47.38).

Boys' under-18: 1. Punjab (1:48.75s), 2. Rajasthan (1:52.65), 3. Andhra Pradesh (1:56.75).

Boys' under-16: 1. Andhra Pradesh (1:55.45s), 2. Karnataka (2:0.40), 3. Punjab (2:0.55).

Women: 1. Manipur (2:5.55s), 2. Andaman and Nicobar (2:9.20), 3. Kerala (2:10.23).

Girls' under-18: 1. Manipur (2:12.0s), 2. Andaman and Nicobar (2:12.52), 3. Kerala (2:22.42s).

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