Indian cyclists miss bronze by a whisker

NEW DELHI: 'Well begun is half done' acquires a whole new meaning in sports like Formula One, athletics and cycling. When nanoseconds separate winners, good starts often make all the difference.
The reality was driven home the hard way when Indian cyclists Rameshwori Devi and Rejani Vijaya Kumari came agonisingly close to winning a bronze in the women's team sprint at the Indira Gandhi Stadium velodrome on Wednesday.Their time of 38.344 seconds fell just short of the 37.094 set by the bronze-winning Canadian pair of Monique Sullivan and Tara Alice Whitten.
The Indian pair can't be blamed if they went away with the 'if only...' feeling. Having never practiced with the facility, Rameshwori and Rejani were suddenly saddled with a starting machine - and they stuttered, losing valuable microseconds at the start. They had a false start earlier.
"We backed ourselves for a medal in this event but the main problem was the starting machine. We have never used a starting machine earlier. Even during the exposure trip to Australia earlier this year, we did training for road races and not on track," Rejani told TOI.
A starting machine is used for track events, and a portion of the cycle is clamped on it. As the countdown for the start ends, the clamp goes loose automatically and the cyclist has to take off.