Odisha ace Swasti Singh won the gold medal in the elite women 20km individual time trial event on the opening day of the two-day Asmita Khelo India Women Road Cycling League (North Zone) at Attari, Amritsar (Punjab) today. She finished the race with a time of 27 minutes 11.198 seconds.

Meenakshi (Haryana) and Sanskruti Sudhir Khese (Maharashtra) secured the silver and bronze medal, clocking 27:29.862 and 29:19.435 respectively. The gold medal for 23-year-old Swasti assumed greater importance as she also achieved her personal best timing in the time trial event.

This was the second gold and eighth Khelo India Cycling League medal of the year for Swasti, who will also be eyeing to win the gold in the mass-start event tomorrow. This will be followed by the North Zone track events of the Khelo India Women Cycling League to be held in Amritsar on September 5 and 6.

Rourkela cyclist Swasti participates in the North Zone League as she trains at the SAI National Centre of Excellence in Patiala, under the guidance of new coach Joginder Singh. She earlier trained under senior coach V N Singh for seven years from 2016. However, the talent in Swasti was first spotted and nurtured by Odisha coach Sushil Kumar Das and Rourkela Steel Plant.

Swasti has been making Odisha and India proud, bagging six international and 43 National/ Khelo India medals since 2018. Her career haul is most likely to cross the 50-medal mark next week.