Odisha cycling heart-throb Swasti Singh made Holi festival all the more colourful, winning gold medal with New National Record in women elite 3000m individual pursuit event on the third day of the 72nd Senior National Track Cycling Championship at Usmania University, Hyderabad, Telangana today.

Swasti achieved the memorable success with time of 4 minutes 05.547 seconds. This was the second medal of the ongoing National championship for Rourkela girl Swasti, who secured silver in 10 km scratch race earlier on the opening day.

Swasti set up the 3000m individual pursuit final against Monika Jat of Rajasthan after finishing second in the qualifying round with a timing of 4:10.516 seconds yesterday. Monika emerged as the favourite for the gold medal, beating Swasti with a National Record of 4:10.037 seconds and erased the previous National Record of 4:14.718 seconds.

The final race, supposed to take place yesterday afternoon, was postponed to today due to bad light. But today, the final took a dramatic turn as Swasti beat Monika for the gold and avenged her earlier defeat with a National Record.

This was the third national medal of the month for Swasti, who captured gold medal in 60km mass start event at the 25th Senior National Road Cycling Championship in Navi Mumbai earlier on March 7, 2021. Swasti has one more event to go in the ongoing Track National championship.

Twenty-year-old Swasti, who started her career under Rourkela coach Sushil Das, has been honing her skills at the SAI National Cycling Academy in New Delhi since 2017. Daughter of Amar Singh and Uma Debi, Swasti also has three international medals to her name so far.
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PHOTO: Odisha cyclist Swasti Singh after winning 3000m individual pursuit gold medal with National Record at Usmania University in Hyderabad on 29 March, 2021.