Naveen John wins Karnataka’s lone gold

BENGALURU: Karnataka’s medal haul dwindled at the National Road Cycling Championships which concluded at Sinnar, Maharashtra, on Tuesday. A powerhouse in the sport, Karnataka ended up with one gold, five silver and three bronze medals to finish sixth overall. Rajasthan topped the medals tally with eight gold, six silver and seven bronze medals.
Champion rider Naveen John clinched the lone yellow metal for the state in the men’s individual time trial event.The 36-year-old, who has dominated the ITT event in the last decade, clocked 51 minutes, 21.014 seconds in the 40km race at an impressive average speed of 46.74kmph.
This was Naveen’s seventh ITT gold and eighth overall at the Nationals. The seasoned pro had won a double (ITT & mass start) when Karnataka last hosted the premier championships at Jamakhandi.
Railways’ Vishvajeet Singh, 16 years younger than the Karnataka cyclist, took the silver, over 22 seconds behind. Dinesh Kumar of Services finished a distant third, a further minute-and-a-half behind.
John then helped Karnataka win the silver in the 60km mixed team relay behind Railways. GT Gagan Reddy, Raju Bati, Soumya Antapur, Chaitra Borji and Savitri Hebbalatti were the other members of the squad. Karnataka also won three more silver medals in the team events.
Sujal Jadhav missed the gold by a whisker (one thousandth of a second) in the sub-junior boys 40km road race. Jharkhand’s Narayan Mahato (1::31:20.046) edged out Jadhav (1::31:20.047) in the sprint finish.
Karnataka’s medallists: Gold: Naveen John (Men, 40km ITT),Silver: Elite 60km mixed team relay (Naveen John, GT Gagan Reddy, Raju Bati, Soumya Antapur, Chaitra Borji, Savitiri Hebbalatti), Sub-junior boys TTT (Sujal Jadhav, Rahul Rathod, Dhananjay Tippannavar), Sub-junior girls TTT (Anupama Guled, Payal Chavan, Keerti Nayak), Youth boys TTT (Tarun Nayak, Yallesh Huded, Honnappa Dharmatti), Sujal Jadhav (Sub-junior boys 40km road race). Bronze: Chaitra Borji (Women, 30km ITT), Boys U-18 TTT (Raghavendra Vandal, Pratap Padachi, Uday Guled, Lakshmish HR), Youth girls TTT (Deepika Fadatare, Kokila Chavan, Jyoti Lamani).