Cyclists take two silver medals on final day in the velodrome

More

Published: 29 Sep. 2023, 22:17 Updated: 29 Sep. 2023, 23:01

Cyclists take two silver medals on final day in the velodrome

A Korean cyclist passes on the inside as China's Wu Junjie falls in the men's madison final at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China on Friday. [AFP/YONHAP]

Korea added two final medals in the velodrome to round off the track cycling segment of the Asian Games on Friday, taking silver in the men’s madison and men’s keirin finals.

Shin Dong-in and Kim Eu-ro combined for a total of 54 points over the 50 kilometer-race, coming in just behind the Japanese pair of Naoki Kojima and Shunsuke Imamura, also with 54 points.

Korean cycling team takes bronze in women's Madison relay

Artyom Zakharov and Ramis Dinmukhametov of Kazakhstan finished third.

Madison is a relay race named after Madison Square Garden in New York where it was first held. The race consists of a pair of riders competing to cover the most distance as possible while also collecting points by racing through sprint sections of the course at predetermined intervals. At least one rider from each team has to be on the track at any given time.

Shin and Kim’s success in the madison was repeated shortly after by Kang Seo-jun in the men’s keirin.

Unlike madison, keirin is an individual sprint race where cyclists spend the first half of the race in a speed-controlled group behind a pacer — normally a motorbike — holding the group to a slowly increasing speed. The pacer drops out halfway through the race and cyclists can then break from the pack and sprint for the finish line.

Kang finished the race 1.474 seconds behind winner Zhou Yu of China and 0.08 seconds ahead of Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom of Malaysia.

Friday’s events mark the end of the cycling track competition at the Asian Games. Korea leave the velodrome third on the medal table with two silver and three bronze medals, behind China and Japan.

Although the track events are now over, cycling will still continue with BMX events on Sunday and road races starting next Tuesday.

BY JIM BULLEY [jim.bulley@joongang.co.kr]