Meet the tribal girl from Andaman who survived the tsunami to become world-rank 4 cyclist
Back in 2004, when the tsunami rocked Andamans, Deborah Herold was just nine. She had to spend over a week stuck in a tree until help arrived. It was a horrifying experience for the tribal girl, who later took up cycling to find solace. Before she knew it, she was already excelling at it and setting national records.
At twenty, she has become the first female cyclist from India to reach the heights of fourth place in the UCI individual world ranking. In a recent interview with Zee news, Deborah said, “I am happy that my ranking has improved a lot and I am the first Indian cyclist to reach at this stage but I want to improve more in the coming days and aiming to be number one in the world. I would like to thank our federation and government for their continuous support in our preparations. I am working hard to qualify for Olympics now.”
She ranked 10th just before the Track Asia Cup in New Delhi. Winning one gold and two silver medals in the recently concluded event has helped her improve rankings, and also helped the Indian team move up to 13th place in the world rankings. “Thats why we compete. I am in a very happy space right now with the team, we are working hard to keep the tempo up,” she told The Times of India.
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