Asian Track Cycling: Ronaldo in men's sprint semis but India draw a blank on Day 4

Ronaldo, who had bagged the country's first-ever international medal in the 1km time trial event by claiming a bronze on Monday, advanced to the semifinals of the men's sprint event where he will challenge Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan. Ronaldo clocked 10.394s (69.27km/hr) and 10.234s (70.353 km/hr) respectively to defeat Jee One Park of Korea in continuous two sprints. "Tomorrow is a big day for me as I will perform in one of my favourite events.

I'm ready to give my personal best to earn the medal for India. This will also show me my preparedness for upcoming Commonwealth Games," said Ronaldo. However, none of the Indian cyclists could reach the podium in the six finals on day four of the competition.

Indian rider Esow once again failed to win his quarter-final event of the men's sprint, losing to Andrey Chugay of Kazakhstan to finish empty-handed in this tournament. Harashveer Singh Sekhon gave a good fight to Korean opponent Euro Kim and Japan's Naoki Kojima in the 30,000m points race before finishing fourth with 43 points. Hammadi Al Mirza secured gold in this event with 69 points, followed by Korea (61 points) and Japan (60 points) riders in this power event, where peddlers have to go for sprints after every 10 laps of 120 laps race.

The day did not start on a good note for the Indian team. Junior cyclist Himanshi Singh earned second place in the 7.5km scratch race but was later disqualified on grounds of dangerous driving. She was blocked behind the Malaysian rider and in an attempt to go ahead of the Malaysian and Japanese rider, she made a technical fault and was disqualified by the Commissionaire.