Paul, Njisane eye Pan Am sprint medals

NICHOLAS Paul and Njisane Phillip will compete in the semifinals of the individual men's sprint at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru, today.

Paul and Phillip are both gunning for their second gold after combining with Keron Bramble on Thursday to win the team sprint gold.

At 1.11 pm TT time, Paul will face Colombian Kevin Santiago Quintero Chavarro and at 1.15 pm Phillip will battle Venezuelan Hersony Gadiel Canelon Vera in the semifinals. The losing semifinalists will advance to the bronze medal ride at 7.57 pm, which will be followed by the gold medal ride at 8.01 pm.

Paul and Phillip won their respective quarter-finals convincingly, last evening. Paul got past Brazilian Kacio Fonseca Da Silva in two consecutive rides in the three-ride series, and Phillip also needed just two rides to defeat Colombian Santiago Ramirez Morales.

Earlier, Paul broke Phillip's Pan American record with a brilliant ride in the qualifying round. Paul ended the qualifying round with a blistering time of 9.808 seconds, which saw him qualify for round one with the fastest time among the field of 17 cyclists. Phillip held the previous record of 9.977, set eight years ago in Guadalajara, Mexico.

Phillip, the two-time Olympian, was also in top form, stopping the clock in 10.087 to qualify second behind Paul. The top 12 cyclists qualified for the next round.

In heat one of round one, Paul defeated Canadian Joel Archambault in 10.482 to book a place in the quarter-finals, and Phillip got past Venezuelan Cesar Mervin Marcano Sanchez in 10.824.

Also in cycling today, Alexi Costa will compete in the women's omnium scratch finals at 1.19 pm. The TT men's pursuit team of Kemp Orosco, Jovian Gomez, Tyler Cole and Jabari Whiteman will participate at 12.24 pm.

In shooting at the Las Palmas Range, TT's Marsha Bullen-Jones competed in the women's 25m pistol precision qualification. She ended with a score of 266, which was only enough to finish 26th among the 27 participants. Andrea Perez of Ecuador ended with the top score of 292. Bullen-Jones will have an opportunity to redeem herself in the women's 25m pistol when she lines up in rapid competition from 10 am TT time, today. The top eight athletes will qualify for the finals at 1.30 pm, today.

In men's skeet shooting, Robert Auerbach of TT ended the day 21st out of 28 participants after two rounds. Auerbach shot rounds of 23 and 21 for an overall score of 44. Canadian Trysten Curran-Routledge and Miguel Pizarro of Puerto Rico are tied at the top with 50. Rounds three, four and five will be held at 10 am today followed by the final at 3.30 pm.

The TT men's hockey team will try to get their first win of the tournament against Chile at 11 am. TT lost to Cuba 3-2 in the opening match, before falling to Argentina 6-0.

Andrew Lewis and Kelly-Ann Arrindell will compete in the men's laser and women's laser radial respectively. Lewis will line up at 1 pm and Arrindell at 12.10 pm.