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Power pedalling
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Young talent from the State came to the fore at the under-16 category of the National Cycling Championship
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ANDHRA PRADESH put up a commendable performance in the junior section of the B.S.A. national track cycling championship, which was conducted at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh's velodrome in the Osmania University recently. Talented youngsters such as R. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, B. Roopesh, Dharma Teja, Satish Kumar and D. Dhanurba won medals in their respective age groups and the State won the team title in the boys' under-16 category.
The fact that A.P. was able to get medals in the men's section also was icing on the cake for the host State. Srinu Kumar, Udale Clark, Ramesh and Krishna came up with noteworthy performances. The most notable feat was the gold which A.P. won in the Olympic sprint event.
The juniors deserve credit for their great show in the face of stiff competition from States such as Punjab, Rajasthan, Manipur, Karnataka and Andaman and Nicobar, indicates that Andhra still has a lot of talent in the junior age groups.
Better cycles
But clearly the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh's talent spotting and development schemes have had a positive effect. The cycles that they used were also of a better level than most of their rivals and this also gave them an advantage.
Most of the boys who won medals were from the SAAP academy and have been coached by Chandra Reddy. In the 500 metres time trial for boys under 16, the host State bagged two medals when R. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy got the gold and B. Roopesh took the silver. On the same day, D. Dhanurba got gold in the sub-junior girls event.
What was more remarkable was that both Vijay Bhaskar Reddy and Roopesh were taking part in their very fist national championship and had only one year of experience in the sport. Gold medallist R. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy who hails from the Ranga Reddy district is a 16-year-old student of Pragathi Mahavidyalaya while B. Roopesh is a 10th std student (private) originally from Visakhapatnam. Both joined the SAAP cycling academy one year ago.
Valuable tips
D. Dhanurba, a 11-year-old student of Timpany School, Visakhapatnam, was spotted through the SAAP's talent search programmeand this is her second national championship. In the 500 metres time trial, Dhanurba clocked 49.20 seconds to get the better of two strong rivals from Punjab namely Shapan Preet Kaur and Taranjit Kaur who timed 49.52 and 50.30 seconds respectively. But the unique aspect about her was that she has not had the benefit of a long term or systematic coaching and has been relying on tips given over the phone!
Now to sustain this momentum in A.P., the sport needs more sponsorship. The sponsorship deal between the Cycling Federation of India and TI Industries (the manufacturers of B.S.A. cycles) is sure to benefit the sport at the national level. What is needed now is a sponsor to come forward at the State level in Andhra Pradesh so that these talented youngsters can get more exposure and utilise top quality equipment. Thereby they may finally achieve the level that they are capable of reaching and also enable A.P. to regain its past glory in the sport.
ABHIJIT SEN GUPTA
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