Kazakhstan on a roll in Asian cycling circuit

Sharjah: Alexey Lutsenko underlined the domination of Kazakhstan on the third day of the 30th Asian Men's Cycling Championship and the 17th Asian Junior Cycling Championship being held in Sharjah, Sunday.

Lutsenko, who had finished with the silver medal four seconds behind South Korean Park Hoon Sang in the junior men's individual time trial on the opening day on last Friday, did one better Sunday when he pedalled his way to the gold in the gruelling 113.4km individual road race for junior men Sunday evening along the Al Khan Corniche.

Lutsenko led a one-two finish for the central Asian country with teammate Maxat Ayazbaev taking the silver, while Iran's Ali Khademi won the bronze.

All three riders finished the race with an identical time of two hours, 56.40 seconds, and only a photo finish enabled the commissaries to decide on the top three placings.

Joining in the celebrations for Kazakhstan was Natalya Stefanskaya when she took the silver behind South Korea's You Ji-na.

Thailand's Jutaaie Maneethan won the bronze in the senior women individual road race held over a distance of 97.2km earlier yesterday morning.

Final call

All three finished the race in a time 2:48.57 and the photo finish decided the final placings.

"I am thrilled to take the gold medal. But it would be unfair for me to take all the credit as I owe much of this success to my teammates.

"The support from them was crucial as I had to pace myself well," the 24-year-old winning rider from South Korea, said.

"This was a completely different race and I feel much of it was decided due to the hot weather conditions," silver medallist Stefanskaya, said.

However, yesterday's silver means a definite progress for the rider from Kazakhstan following her third place finish in the 2009 Asian Cycling Championship held in Indonesia.

"The next step for me will be the Youth Olympic Games (in Singapore) later this year," Stefanskaya stated.

Yesterday's performance takes Kazakhstan to the top of the medal standings with three golds.

Today is the final day for road racing that will start off with the women juniors 64.8km individual road race from 8am followed by the 145.8km senior men's individual road race from 2pm.