In a historic moment for Indian cycling, six Indian cyclists have booked their berth for the upcoming World Track Cycling Championships in Denmark.
The Indian team for World Championships will have six riders with four in sprint and two in endurance. The event is scheduled from 16th to 20th October in Ballerup Super Arena, Denmark.
Ronaldo Singh, Esow Alben, Rojit Singh, and David Beckham will represent India in the sprint while Harshveer Sekhon and Meenakshi in the endurance events.
This for the first time that there will be Indian cyclists in the endurance category making it a historic moment.
“It is indeed a historic moment. Our cyclists have qualified through the points accumulated via the world rankings. For the first time, we will have endurance riders as the sprinters have played at World Championships before,” Rahul Kumar, one of the cycling coaches of the Indian team told The Bridge over a phone call.
“It will be a huge opportunity for our cyclists to show their talent in front of the world,” he added further.
Indian sprint teams have been part of the World Championships before with Ronaldo also participating in the individual event.
What is the difference between Sprint and Endurance in Track Cycling?
Similar to track and field, sprint and endurance in track cycling refer to different events focusing on different physical abilities and tactics of the riders.
In endurance events, riders are expected to sustain high speeds covering multiple laps of the track while in sprints the races are shorter covering 200m-1000m on the track.
Both categories have team and individual events.