Nicholas Paul and Njisane Phillip have put themselves in a position for more medals for T&T at the Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Santiago, Chile.
Beyond the veteran sprinters, rising endurance talent Jadian Neaves provided another spark for T&T as his time of 4:21.726 in the individual pursuit set a new national record on Friday. Neaves, one of four riders tasked with contesting the team pursuit for the first time, finished 10th overall in the individual event.
He nestled behind the eventual winner, Sebastian Ruiz of Mexico (4:11.375) and eight other riders, namely Cameron Fitzmaurice of Canada (4:11.572), Chris Ernst (Canada - 4:11.659), Diego Rojas (Chile- 4:12.586), Brendan Rhim (USA- 4:12.946), Stiven Sanchez (Colombia- 4:16.141), Cade Bickmore (USA- 4:18.142), Anderson Arboleda (Colombia- 4:20.598), and Luciano Carrizo (Chile- 4:20.854).
His time erased the previous record, 4:31.944 that was set by Varun Maharajh back in 2015.
Meanwhile, both Paul and Phillip booked their spots in the quarterfinals in similar fashions. Both got byes for the round of 1/16, but when Paul emerged in the 1/8 round, he made light work out of Jafet Emmanuel Gonzaga of Mexico by producing a time of 10.664 to leave his opponent in his trail.
Phillip then disposed of another Mexican, Edgar Ismael Verdugo, on a canter to seal his place in the round of eight, where he is set to face Venezuelan Alberto Andreas Suarez in heat three.
Earlier, the duo displayed expressive sprinting power and speed in the flying 200 metres qualifiers to be among the matchups for the match sprints. Paul returned from Thursday’s gold medal ride in the men’s keirin and showed no signs of tiredness, producing the fastest time in the qualifiers at 9.400 seconds.
He was followed by Colombian David Ortega Fontalvo, who climbed to a speed of 75.242km/h to cross the finish line in 9.569 seconds, with T&T’s two-time Olympian, who was among the quarterfinalists of the match sprint at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, England, storming home in 9.580.
Kwesi Browne, who struggled at the qualifying Trials at the National Cycling Centre (NCC) in Balmain, Couva, on January 17, lifted his performance with a speed of 72.845km/h that earned him the 12th-fastest time in the flying 200 metres at 9.884 seconds.
However, after holding off Ethan Salvador Ramirez of Mexico in the 1/16 round of the match sprint, Browne was beaten by Canada’s Cole Dempster in the 1/8 round.
Meanwhile, Teniel Campbell, a gold medal winner in the scratch race on the opening day, was ninth in the women’s omnium, which featured the scratch race, tempo race, elimination, and the points race.
