TT win first gold at 2019 Pan Am

TT’s cycling trio of Keron Bramble, Njisane Phillip and Nicholas Paul captured this country’s first gold medals at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru last evening, beating rivals Colombia in a brilliant come-from-behind effort in the final of the men’s team sprint.

They opened the day in the team qualifying and breezed into the final as the fastest qualifiers, clocking 44.260 seconds, before saving the best for last, as they secured gold in a time of 43.972 seconds.

Bramble, challenging the first lap, finished in 17.938 seconds, some 0.024 seconds short of Colombia’s opener Rubin Murillo Minota. Phillip, however, burst onto the scene and put his team ahead almost immediately in the second lap, a lead which team TT never relinquished.

Phillip clocked 12.655 seconds, before Paul finished in 13.379 seconds to secure gold.

Colombia clocked 44.584 for silver. Brazil captured bronze as Mexico were disqualified in that event.

Also in cycling, Akil Campbell finished ninth in the men’s omnium I (scratch race) and omnium II (tempo), and ninth in the omnium III (elimination) entering last evening’s fourth and final omnium event in ninth place. His final race last night finished after press time.

Phillip and Paul will start their challenge in the men’s sprint qualifying this morning. The gold medal race will follow in the evening.

Team TTO also competed in shooting and hockey yesterday.

Olympian Roger Daniel finished 18th after two stages in the men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol qualifying event. Only the top six shooters qualified for the final.

In hockey, the men’s team lost for the second time in as many matches, falling 6-0 this time to Argentina.

They lost their opening match 3-2 to Cuba on Tuesday, and will close their pool challenge tomorrow against Chile.