Ronaldo Laitonjam Singh and David Beckham, two of India's top cyclists, will accompany Indian athletes on their way to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games 2022. Only these two Indian athletes are competing in cycling at the Commonwealth Games 2022 in Birmingham.
India has yet to win a single cycling medal, and the young duo will be hoping to break that streak as they enter the games in good form. In 2018, India had nine cyclists compete, but no medals were won.
Ronaldo Laitonjam Singh hails from the state of Manipur in Northeast India. The professional cyclist won a bronze medal in the team sprint event at the Asian Track Cycling Championships and also won a silver medal with a new national record in the men's elite sprint race (ATCC). He set a national record in the quarter-finals with a 9.946s sprint (first Indian to breach the 10-sec mark).
In 2019, the 20-year-old Manipur cyclist made headlines when he and teammates Rojit Singh and Esow Alban won gold at the Junior World Championships, giving India its first-ever medal in the competition.
David Beckham is a professional cyclist from Car Nicobar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who is 19 years old. He won gold in the 200-meter cycling event at the 2020 Youth Games in Guwahati.
Because of his name, PM Modi mentioned the 19-year-old in his Mann Ki Baat address on January 26, 2020, saying, "If I say the name David Beckham, you'll wonder if I'm talking about the legendary international footballer. But now we have a David Beckham among us, who has won a gold medal at the Guwahati Youth Games. That, too, in the cycling 200-meter sprint event."
The duo has been two of the country's most promising young cycling talents and is all set to represent India at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham set to begin on July 28 2022.