All India Inter-university Cycling Championship: Ludhiana’s Harsimranjit Singh wins bronze
A trainee at the city-based cycling velodrome, 22-year-old Harsimranjit Singh, has bagged a bronze medal in the All India Inter-university Cycling Championship that was held at Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar.
The championship concluded at the university on November 2.
Harsimranjit participated in 1km individual time trial event and secured the third position. He, along with other cyclists Amandeep Kamboj, Harjit Singh Pannu and Mayank Patel, also participated in team sprint event and the team clinched a bronze medal. The cyclist is now gearing up for Track Nationals which are to be held in the last week of December in Hyderabad. The bronze medallist, who is studying bachelor of arts in Chandigarh University, says he devotes around five hours a day, practising both on road and track.
The athlete said he had decided to quit participating in state-level championships in 2015 after his father passed away four days before the event but it was his coach, Satwinder Singh, who encouraged him to compete. Harsimranjit had clinched a silver medal in the championship.
“After that, there was no looking back and it is due to my coach that I am standing here with a medal. He is my inspiration,” the athlete said. Hailing from Kutba Village in Barnala, Harsimranjit had taken admission in the Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) school in 2014 for professional training in sports. After meeting Satwinder, he developed an interest in cycling and since then, has been getting training under Satwinder.
The athlete had also won several medals in national-level championships held in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
OTHER WINNERS
Coach Satwinder said that his other trainees, Pruniti and Gurpreet, both students of Panjab University, have also clinched medals in the inter-university championship. Pruniti has won two silver medals in Keirin Race and 500m individual time trial and also won a bronze in team sprint, whereas Gurpreet has secured a bronze in team pursuit.
All the trainees practise at the PAU cycling velodrome.
