India has a Ronaldo, and he just won an Asian Cycling Gold

Who comes to your mind when you hear the name "Ronaldo"? It is certainly the Portuguese and Juventus football star who commands a global fan base. What you probably won't think of is a scrawny lad from Manipur who has just won two major medals for India at the ongoing Asian Track Cycling competition. Historically speaking, India has never managed to make an impact as far as the global cycling stage is concerned. While most of the country's population choose to pursue it as a recreational fitness activity, competitive cycling has been restricted to just a few big names in all these years. Deborah became the first Indian female cyclist to be ranked to be ranked World No. 4 back in 2015 and now, Esow Alben has kept the tradition of Andaman and Nicobar cyclists high by clinching the World No 1 rank in Junior Men's Keiran. On Friday, Ronaldo Singh won the Gold medal in the 1 km Time Trial event at the Asian Track Cycling Championship junior men's category. The individual medal came a day after he also won the Gold with the Indian Men's Junior Sprint team. The India team featuring Esow, Ronaldo Singh Laitonjam and Rojit Singh Yanglem won gold with a timing of 45.432s. Malaysia had finished a close second while Taiwan grabbed the Bronze. If that was not enough, Ronaldo more recently finished with a Silver in the Individual Junior Men's Sprint in a podium that was dominated by Indians. Esow Alben bagged the gold. https://twitter.com/TheBridge_IN/status/1084013967276597248 What's surprising is that this is his first international outing and he seems to have adequately proven himself at least in the Junior circuit. At the Asian Track Cycling Championships, India have so far bagged three Gold medals, two Silvers and one Bronze. The sport definitely seems to be on the rise in the country not just recreationally but also competitively.