Campbell siblings pedal to double bronze at Elite Pan Am Champs

SIBLINGS TENIEL and Akil Campbell pedalled to bronze medals in the women elimination and men’s scratch races respectively on day two of the 2022 Elite Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Lima, Peru on Thursday.

In the ten-lap event, Teniel utilised her European road experience to control the bunch for the most of the race.

With three laps to go, American Olivia Cummins was eliminated. Her exit left Teniel, Canadian Sarah Van Dam and Mexican Yareli Acevedo to battle for the top three spots.

Chasing glory, Van Dam and Acevedo accelerated past race leader Teniel and maintained their advantage to force the TT cyclist into bronze medal position.

Sprinting to the end, Van Dam bettered Acevedo to claim top honours while the Mexican settled for silver.

And in the men’s 15km (60 laps) scratch race, Akil was unable to repeat his golden showing at the 2021 edition and held on to bronze this time around. Wining gold was American Grant Koontz while Canadian Dylan Bibic earned silver.

In other morning session events on Thursday, TT’s Nicholas Paul and Kwesi Browne eased into the second round of keirin competition after both won their respective first round rides. Paul won heat two while Browne topped heat five.

The remaining keirin rounds will be contested in the evening session.

Additionally, Sylese Christian was eliminated in the women’s sprint qualifying round. She clocked 12.575 seconds at a speed of 57.256 kilometres per hour. Her time was 24th fastest and did not fall within the advancing cyclists.

Teniel and Akil’s performances sent TT’s Elite Pan Am Champs medal tally to three as the sprint trio of Paul, Browne and Zion Pulido blasted to men’s team sprint gold on Wednesday.