TT miss out on team sprint bronze

NATIONAL CYCLISTS Njisane Phillip, Nicholas Paul and Keron Bramble, missed out on capturing TT’s first-ever Tissot International Cycling Union (UCI) Track Cycling World Cup Men’s Team Sprint medal after going down against hosts New Zealand when day-one action rode off at the Avantidrome, Cambridge, on Friday.

After setting a new sea level National record of 43.966 seconds in their Men’s Team Sprint eighth place performance at last weekend’s Hong Kong leg of the World Cup, TT showed signs of improvement by clocking 43.852 in the qualifying round of this week’s edition. This time saw TT qualify fifth fastest of the eight progressing teams and then paired with the Russian Federation for their quarter-final ride-off.

The dynamic local trio proved superior and clocked yet another new seal level National record of 43.369 seconds to see off the Russian unit of Alexander Sharapov, Denis Dmitriev and Pavel Yakushevskiy (43.587).

In the bronze medal ride-off against New Zealand’s Edward Dawkins, Sam Webster and Ethan Mitchell, the national squad fell .185 hundredths of a second short of grabbing bronze, clocking 43.552 while the Kiwis sped to a 43.367 performance. Japan would also get the better of Poland in the final and cop gold.

With this credible showing, TT has earned 562.5 more UCI points towards their Olympic qualification campaign.

Meanwhile, national rider Kwesi Browne was scheduled to line up in heat one of four of the Men’s Keirin, after press time on Friday night. Browne faced a tough group comprising of Yudai Nitta (Japan), Hugo Barette (Canada), Krzysztof Maksel (Poland), Pavel Kelemen (Czech Republic) and Dmytri Stovbetskyi (Ukraine).

Additionally, world Men’s Flying 200m record holder (9.1s), Nicholas Paul, also lines up for another shot in the Men’s Individual Sprint on Saturday. After placing ninth in Hong Kong but still gaining a hefty amount of Tokyo qualifier points, Paul is hoping for an improved finish this time around.

Following their stint in Cambridge, the Erin Hartwell-led unit then travel to Brisbane, Australia, on Monday to climax preparations ahead of the final 2019 World Cup which pedals off on December 13.