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New Delhi, Nov 20 (IANS)
The Track Asia Cup, beginning at the IG Stadium Velodrome on Friday, provides home-bred cyclists a golden opportunity to collect valuable points in their quest towards qualifying for the World Championships in France next February and the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Indian riders will have the advantage of playing at home to maximise the chance of logging full points keeping in mind that only top 24 countries qualify for the World Championships and just nine for the Olympics.
The Indian team will largely bank on its women cyclists, led by Deborah, to win medals while the men's team will be spearheaded by Amrit Singh in the Class 1 competition.
The competition was reduced to a four-way contest with India, Hong Kong, Thailand and Kazakhstan participating following the withdrawls of Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Malaysia.
The late withrawls could prove beneficial for the hosts, as it lessens the competition. But India's chief coach R.K Sharma warned the cyclists of complacency.
"Yes, the pullout of the three teams may have taken the sheen somewhat off the event, but by no stretch of imagination has it made things easy for other competitors. On the contrary, you will get to see very close contests among riders," Sharma said in a release Thursday.
