Esow Alben bags gold at the Six Day Berlin cycling tournament

Indian cyclist Esow Alben won the gold medal in the Kerin individual event of the six-day Berlin tournament. The 18-year-old cyclist from the Andaman & Nicobar Islands scored 20 classification points on Monday night in order to stand at the top of the podium and bite gold.

Thomas Baubeck of the Czech Republic, who won the silver medal in the World Championships 2017, followed Esow Alben on the podium and Maximilian Lev of Germany had to be content with a third-place finish.

Earlier in the competition, Esow Alben had won a bronze on the second day of the competition followed by a silver medal on the fourth day in the individual Keirin event. In this six-day competition, cyclists have to participate in the competition every day.

Esow Alben has been climbing the stairs of name and fame with his superb performances in cycling. The 18-year old teenager had taken the world by storm when he won a historic silver medal in the men’s keirin event at the 2018 UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championship held in Switzerland. Esow’s silver was India’s first-ever medal at the World Championship.

The year 2019 was no different for this youngster as he helped India to another historic medal at the 2019 UCI Junior Track Cycling World Championship held in Germany. Esow Alben along with Ronaldo Laitonjam, Jemsh Singh and Rojit Singh helped the Indian men’s team clinch a historic gold in the men’s team sprint event. In the same tournament, the Indian team also bagged silver and bronze medals in men’s sprint and men’s keirin events.

Esow has featured in the senior level in as many as four tournaments — he won a gold in men’ keirin event as well as a bronze in the Track Asia Cup held at New Delhi in September last year.

Esow is a huge fan of the iconic Cristiano Ronaldo, who he considers “very motivational and one of the most dedicated and successful players.” However, when it comes to cycling, Esow considers Malaysian cyclist Azizulhasni Awang, who’s fondly known as ‘The Pocket Rocketman’, as his role model.