Indian cycling's wonder girl Deborah yet again proved to be the saviour for her country as she won a gold in the the 500-metre time trial event of the women's elite section on the opening day of the Track Asia Cup 2014 at the IG Stadium Complex Velodrome, here today.
The girl from Andaman and Nicobar, who clocked 37.250 seconds for the distance, finished way ahead of the silver medallist Tatyana Zadenepryanova of Kazakhstan and bronze medal winner Parul Akhtar of Bangladesh.
The Kazakh girl timed 40 seconds while the competitor from Bangladesh clocked 45.600 seconds.
It was Deborah's gold that uplifted the mood of the Indian camp after the hosts had grabbed one silver and four bronze medals during the evening session.
Debroah's race was the fourth in the order and the Indian, knowing full well that she had to beat Tatyana, was at the start gate. She picked up a good speed, measuring up to 48.322 km per hour, peddled her way to finish the first 250 metres in 20.788 seconds.
That was a good indication as Deborah, at that point of time, was No. 1 on the time chart. But she had another 250 metres to go and the Indian upped the ante with a perfect sprint to the finish point clocking 48.322, clipping off a few milliseconds in the latter half as the sizeable crowd raised the din with a standing ovation.
But for this gold, India had to really struggle for a top podium finish as riders from Hong Kong, Thailand and Kazakhstan were heads and shoulders above the Indian competitors.
Of the five other finals on the day, Hong Kong riders grabbed three gold medals in men's elite 1-km time trial, women elite points race and in men junior's 1-km time trial.
