Vijayawada: The grant of affiliation to the AP State Cycling Association by the Cycling Federation of India (CFI) will boost cycling activities, including conduct of tournaments in AP. A fight had broken out in the Cycling Association at the time of state bifurcation which prevented AP from conducting programmes due to the absence of affiliation.
Before bifurcation, about 150 cyclists across AP lost out as there was a quarrel in the Cycling Association and it continued even after the state was bifurcated 5 years ago. Now AP cyclists will get permission to participate in national events and they can be organised in AP too. Hundreds of cyclists will be benefited. AP Cycling Association Secretary Murali and President R.V. Ramana Murthy, who put in all their efforts to obtain affiliation, are getting appreciation from cycling lovers across the state. According to the State Association members, a few formalities are still pending and they will be completed in a week’s time.
Before getting affiliated also, the State Association sent a team for the Nationals but but the CFI treated them as CFI players in mountain bike competitions and as AP state players in road race competitions the previous year. But from now on, all the players will be treated as the AP state players in all events. The State Association is planning to send full teams to the mountain bike cycling tournament to be held on October 25. The association is also planning to participate with timing players in the road race cycling tournament to be held in November at Kurukshetra. For this, the association has planned to organise inter district competitions to finalise the AP team.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, R.V. Ramana Murthy said “it’s a happy moment in the cycling history of AP. We are concentrating on establishing a Velodrome in Vizag, with the immediate action of developing track cycling and are also planning to organise national cycling games in the state with the cooperation of CFI.” He added that they would try to provide cycles to the players to encourage them as the cycles were very expensive and a normal player could not afford them.
He said, “We appeal to the government to incr-ease the number of academies run by the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP) from 1 to 3 for the sake of Central and the South Andhra cyclists.” He further said, “To strengthen the game in the state, the state association will try to merge all the cycling clubs in the state with their district associations after discussions.” He added, “We need to concentrate on developing cycling in the state for participating in the 2019 National Games with full teams, each consisting of 42 cyclists, in all the events.”
Answering to a question he said, “Traffic issues and technical problems with the police department are the main hurdles in organising a Road Bike race in the state. We are organising such road bike races in interior places in vacant lands.”
