Esow Alban, the rising cycling star from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, created history on Thursday when he became the first Indian to win a medal at the Junior Track Cycling World Championships. He won the silver in the men’s Keirin event on the second day of the event in Switzerland. This is India’s first-ever medal at any cycling World Championships.
He finished just 0.017 seconds behind Czech gold medallist Jakub Stastny in the thrilling photo-finish of a race. In the first round, he had topped his heats with a 200m time of 10.851 seconds.
“I just wanted to stay at the front and avoid getting involved in any crashes. I believed I could win but I am still happy… well a little bit happy,” he said after the historic medal.
In July, he has become the junior World No 1 in the event. Earlier this year, he had become the the first Indian to win a gold medal at the Asian Junior track Cycling Championship. In fact, he had won three gold medals in 25th Junior Asian Track Cycling Championships in Malaysia two individual medals in Keirin and Sprint and a team one with Mayur Pawar and James Singh.
Esow trains in Delhi at the Sports Authority of India’s National Cycling Academy.
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