Njisane, Bramble defend team withdrawal

NJISANE Phillip and Keron Bramble have omitted themselves from all pre-Tokyo 2020 Olympic training and qualifier competitions citing TT’s chances of securing a Men’s Team Sprint spot as impossible.

On December 24, 2019, both athletes emailed similar statements to TT Cycling Federation general secretary Jacqui Corbin, racing chairman Joseph Roberts and the Office of the Prime Minister’s Sport and Culture Fund explaining their collaborative decision to opt out of coach Erin Hartwell’s 2020 programme and the two remaining Olympic qualifier events – International Cycling Union (UCI) World Cup in Milton, Canada (January 24-26) and the Track Cycling World Championships in Berlin, Germany (February 26 – March 1).

According to the pair, they believe the national Team Sprint squad’s chances of securing an Olympic debut in this event are virtually unattainable due to its current tenth place position (5,610 points) on the Olympic Team Sprint Rankings with just the two qualifier events remaining.

Only eight teams will be selected to compete at the Summer Games and both cyclists seem certain TT does not have a chance against the likes of seventh and eighth-ranked Olympic nations, Japan (6,375pts) and Poland (6,172.5pts) respectively.

Even though the Russian Federation is ranked ninth (6,135pts) and was handed a four-year ban by the World Anti-Doping Agency in late 2019, which eliminates them from both the Tokyo Games and 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Phillip and Bramble still believe Men’s Team Sprint qualification is an unimaginable task.

Both statements read, “After careful review, it is of my belief that the points needed in the Team Sprint to overtake both Japan and Poland for TT to rank within the top eight positions to qualify for Olympics 2020 isn’t possible at this stage. Taking this into account, I withdrew myself from the Team Sprint program as it would be next to impossible to gain the points to rank in the qualifying eight teams.”

The pair also claim their departure should aid the progress of individual athletes, Nicholas Paul and Kwesi Browne, on their journey to gaining Olympic qualification in the Men’s Sprint and Keirin events respectively. They insist their withdrawal “will also help the training programme focus on the two individuals who can still qualify in their individual disciplines (Keirin and Individual Sprint).”

Speaking to Bramble on Monday, he admitted their performances during the 2019 World Cup season (China, New Zealand and Australia) were good, but not good enough.

“After Hong Kong, we knew the only way TT had a chance to qualify was by getting a podium position in either Cambridge or Brisbane,” he said. “Since then, we knew we may not make it. After missing the first two World Cups (Belarus and Great Britain), the results were not as expected because the teams that we needed to beat (Japan and Poland), we didn’t. It’s too late to play catch up now. We are still supporting Paul and Browne one hundred per cent.”