India’s Esow Alben lived up to his billing winning the bronze medal in the men’s keirin at the World Junior Track Cycling Championships in Frankfurt on Thursday.
Earlier, he was the part of the Indian team, along with L Ronaldo Singh, Y Rojit Singh and Jemsh Singh, who won a historic first men’s team sprint gold at the event. This was India’s first gold at a world cycling event, senior or junior.
In the men’s team sprint first round, India clocked the fastest time at 44.764 seconds, beating China’s time of 46.248s.
The final of the team event saw India take on Australia and win with a stunning finish. The Australian trio led over the first of two laps. But the Indian team, who were fastest earlier in the day, rode a superb 12.915s in the second and final lap to take gold by just 0.056. They clocked 44.625s in the gold medal race.
In the individual men’s keirin event, Esow finished behind Greece’s Konstantinos Livanos who won gold and Australia’s Sam Gallagher who won silver.
Esow is currently the top-ranked junior cyclist in the world in the sprint and keirin events.
In 2018, the cycling star from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, had become the first Indian to win a medal at the Junior Track Cycling World Championships when he won the silver in the men’s Keirin event.
