Paul ends Pan Am Champs 4th in Time Trial

JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH

FOLLOWING two gold medal performances in the Men’s Team Sprint and the Men’s Sprint, Nicholas Paul, concluded his stellar showing at the 2019 Pan American Championships with a fourth place finish in the 1km Individual Time Trial as the curtains fell along the Cochabamba track,in Bolivia, earlier today.

Paul's 59.241 second performance was however, good enough to set a new national record, even though he missed out on the bronze medal by a nippy .29 seconds behind Vincent de Haitre of Canada, who clocked a time of 58.951 seconds. In the same event, compatriot Quincy Alexander suffered mechanical problems in his first effort but was allowed a re-ride where he would eventually stop the clock at 1:01:443 and place 10th overall.

In other races today, Akil Campbell put up a good fight in the fourth and final event of the Men’s Omnium – Points Race. Even though he lapped the bunch and picked up some additional sprint points, Campbell settled for a sixth place finish overall.

Additionally, female cyclist Dominique Lovell, placed fifth in Heat Two of the Women’s Keirin. She was forced to vie for a place in the next round by competing in the Round One Repechage, but could only muster up a fourth place showing.

All in all, this was TT’s best ever competitive display at the Pan American Championships as they pedalled off with two gold (Men’s Team Sprint and Men’s Sprint) and one bronze medal (Men’s Keirin). The squad also left the South American continent with a new world record (Flying 200m), two new Pan American Championship records (Flying 200m and Men’s Team Sprint) and three new national records (Flying 200m, Men’s Team Sprint and 1km Time Trial).

Such impressive performances will see TT earn a healthy number of Olympic points towards their qualification campaign to Tokyo 2020. The team is tentatively expected to return home on Tuesday night.