Tagaytay: Japan's Kaiya Ota set a new record in the Asian Cycling Confederation (ACC) Track Championships elite men sprint in the qualifying round and eventually won the gold medal Monday at the Tagaytay CT Velodrome in Cavite. The Asian Games two-time gold medalist clocked 9.348 seconds in Sunday's qualifiers to improve the Asian mark of 9.350 seconds he set at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
According to Philippines News Agency, Ota won the gold but was unable to submit a better time at 9.575 seconds on Sunday, but it was good enough to deny China's Li Zhiwei an upset ride, who clocked 9.926 seconds. Ota's fellow Japanese Olympians topped the elite men and women Madison in the tournament hosted by the PhilCycling and Tagaytay City and supported by the Philippine Sports Commission, MVP Sports Foundation, Sports Plus PH, Toyota, and Peak.
Eiya Hashimoto and Kazushige Kuboki bagged the elite men Madison gold with 104 points. Kazakhstan's Ilya Karabutov and Ramis Dinmukhametov took the silver medal with 82 points, while Hong Kong's Tsu Wai Chu and Kai Kwong Tso settled for the bronze medal with 65 points. Mizuki Ikeda and Maho Kakita dominated the women's race with 53 points. China's Xianbing Gong and Menghan Zhou secured the silver with 40 points, while Hong Kong's Sze Wing Lee and Wing Yee got the bronze with 31 points.
Meanwhile, China remained on top of the medal tally board with 13 golds and six silvers, followed by Japan with four golds, six silvers, and seven bronzes. In the junior keirin, Yi Kuan Lin of Chinese Taipei ruled the men's division, while Hyerin Park of South Korea won the women's division.
