India‘s young cycling sensation Deborah Herold has become the first female cyclist from the country to reach the heights of fourth place in the UCI individual world ranking, following the release of the latest rankings by the sport’s governing body for the 500m time trial event.

The 20-year-old Deborah, from Andaman and Nicobar, collected 211 points in 500m time trial and secured fourth place in the World Elite UCI (International Cycling Union) ranking released by UCI.

“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,” Deborah said.

“We are very happy that Indian cyclists are improving day by day and I’m sure that Deborah will improve further in years to come,” said Onkar Singh, the Secretary General of the Cycling Federation of India on Friday.

“The chances for Indian team to qualify for World Championship are much brighter now as till 15th rank teams will qualify for World Championship and currently India is on 13th rank. However, this ranking will further update after Asian Championship which will be held from 26-30 January 2016 in Japan,” said Onkar.

“After looking at the recent outstanding performance of Indian cyclists, World Cycling Centre in Switzerland has announced 75% concession to Indian cyclist to train in Switzerland. After which the federation has decided to send Kejia Vargheese and Deborah Herold along with their coach R K Sharma for training in Switzerland till the Asian Championship in Japan early next year,” he added.