Nicholas Paul ranked UCI's top men's sprint cyclist

National cyclist Nicholas Paul is now ranked as the globe’s top individual men’s sprint cyclist.

The latest International Cycling Union (UCI) Men Elite Sprint Ranking, which was released on Thursday, showed Paul had jumped six places up the standings into pole position.

The 23-year old leads the international field with 2,267.5 UCI points. Colombian Kevin Quintero (2219) and Russian Denis Dmitriev (1,865) complete the top three and the Dutch pair of Harrie Lavreysen (1,750) and Jeffrey Hoogland (1,575) round off the top five sprinters.

Paul rose to the summit of the UCI sprint rankings after producing a golden finish at the Nations Cup in Cali, Colombia last weekend.

Quintero, who previously led the sprint rankings, dropped to second position owing to Paul’s victory over the Colombian in the men’s sprint final at the Nations Cup.

On his way to gold, Paul, the men’s Flying 200m world-record holder (9.1 seconds) also set a Colombian track record with a blistering 9.66s showing in the qualifier event.

Paul’s jump was also supported by his sixth-place finish in that event at the Olympic Games in Japan.

His recent performances also saw Trinidad and Tobago rise to tenth overall on the UCI’s Nation Rankings for individual sprints. TT was 18th before UCI’s recent update.

Additionally, Paul leapt 99 places on the individual keirin rankings into 18th place (1,040pts) overall.

Paul produced another golden showing in the men’s keirin at the Nations Cup, backed by a 12th-place finish at the Tokyo Games, both of which aided his climb up the rankings.

Although he won the men’s kilometre time trial at the Nations Cup, Paul remains in 12th position at the UCI level.

Another milestone for TT cycling is Akil Campbell’s (1,070pts) surge up the UCI’s Men Elite Elimination Rankings, from 60th to third in the world. Ahead of him are top-ranked Algerian Yacine Chalel (1,172) and Chilean Cristian Pizarro (1,120) respectively.

Campbell’s progress up the rankings came after he also won gold in the men’s elimination race at the Nations Cup. TT also sits in 11th place on the UCI Nations Rankings in this event.