The 19-year old tsunami survivor, Deborah, made history by winning bronze medal on the first day of the Asian Cycling Championship at Indira Gandhi Indoor Velodrome in the Capital on Thursday. The ‘Wonder girl’— as she is dubbed by the Cycling Federation of India — clocked 37.841 seconds to finish behind Korea’s Yeonhee Jang (37.159) and Taipei’s Yu Shiou Cheng (37.834) in the junior category.
Celebrating the World Women’s Day a day earlier, Deborah did not have a smooth start. But the sporting talent from Andaman & Nicobar displayed steely resolve to become the second Indian woman to win a medal at the Asian Championship, therefore, living up to her nickname.
“I went blank after I got tripped (in the beginning). I told myself to be calm so that I can cool my nerves even though I had to start immediately. After the first lap I knew I was in with a chance to finish on the podium. I am happy, I lived up to the expectations,” an eleated Deborah said after finishing third. She also qualified for the semifinal of the team sprint.
Another youngster who did India proud in the Championship was 16-year-old Jashanjit Kaur from Punjab. She qualified in the 2 km-individual pursuit and has a chance of winning a bronze against Yekateriana Yuraitis of Kazakhstan on Friday. “I wanted to take up athletics but my father pursued me to take up cycling. I will give my best to justify his foresight,” said the determined youngster.
Among the other Indians in the fray, Sunita Devi was impressive as she bettered her Commonwealth Games show in the individual 3-km event. Her timing of 4.04.4235 was a creditable fifth in the competition won by Japanese Sakura Tsukagoshi at 3:46.326. The silver went to South Korean Youri Kim at3:53.546 and the bronze was taken by Chinese li Jiujin at 3:57.499.
While the women impressed with their performances, men weren’t up to the mark. Alan Baby finished fourth in the men’s junior 1-km time trial event. Another cyclist Dilawar finished eighth in the men juniors 3-km individual pursuit.