India pockets 12 medals, including four gold, on opening day of Track Asia Cup

New Delhi, Sep 9 (PT) India made a bumper start to its Track Asia Cup campaign winning 12 medals, including four gold, in a complete show of dominance here on Monday. It was the the world-class junior team which stood up to the expectations and captured the gold in men's junior team sprint event. The women's junior and elite teams also shone and returned with two gold medals.

Ronaldo Laitonjam stole the show for India as the junior world champion won two gold medals in one day. He first helped junior men's team to win the gold in sprint event and then returned to finish the day with the yellow metal in the 1 KM time trial event at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium. Triyasha Paul also won two gold medals on the opening day. She first paired with Nikita Nisha to finish at the top of the podium in the junior women's sprint event.

They were so dominating in the race that the difference between the second finisher Kazakhstan pair was close to three seconds. Later, Paul won the time trial 500m event while Nisha won the silver to complete a 1-2 finish. The day was made more memorable when Mayuri Lute of India's second team, Sports Authority of India National Cycling Academy (SAINCA), won the gold medal in women's elite time trial 500m event.

A total of 12 countries are participating in the tournament. India began the day on a promising note as Venkappa Kengalgutti and Elangbam Singh opened the medal tally by capturing the silver and bronze medal respectively in the men's junior 10km Scratch Race.

Uzbekistan's Behzodek Rakhimbaev won the gold medal. Two more Indians -- Ganesh Kudignaur and M Tanishq Gaur -- finished 10th and 11th respectively. The only event in which India did not medal was the women's junior 7.5km scratch race. SAINCA's Swasti and Chayanika Gogoi narrowly missed out on finishing on podium after finishing fourth and fifth.

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