Golden ride: Nicholas Paul defends Pan Am sprint cycling crown

Trinidad and Tobago men's cyclist Nicholas Paul defended his Pan American crown in the men's sprint cycling event, winning gold at the 2023 edition of the games at the Velodromo Penalolen in Santiago, Chile on Thursday.

Paul, 25, defeated his training partner Jair Tjon En Fa of Suriname in two consecutive races in the best-of-three gold medal race. After winning the first race comfortably, En Fa needed to win race two to extend the final to a third race.

In the second race, En Fa was in front as Paul waited to make his move. With one and a half laps remaining, world record holder Paul went into another gear and quickly went past En Fa and never looked back.

En Fa gave up in the closing stages as Paul won comfortably by a few lengths.

Four years ago, Paul defeated fellow TT cyclist Njisane Phillip to win gold at the 2019 Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.

In the semi-final one of the sprint on Thursday morning, Paul showed off his blistering speed as he defeated Colombia's Kevin Quintero in back-to-back races to book his place in the final. Paul took the first race in a time of 9.768 seconds. In the second ride, the defending Pan Am Games sprint champion clocked a time of 9.760 as he finished a lengthy distance ahead of the Colombian rider.

On Wednesday, Paul broke the Pan Am Games sprint record when he clocked a rapid time of 9.574 to finish atop the qualifying field.

Also in Thursday's morning session, TT rider Alexi Ramirez had a brilliant start to the women's omnium event, as she amassed a total of 40 points with her win in the scratch event – the first of four races in the omnium. Ramirez separated herself from the pack with about four laps to go, and she did not relent as she held on to take the top spot.

She did not have the same success in the tempo race ending tenth as she slipped down the rankings, before ending seventh in the elimination race. In the points race, the final event of the omnium, Ramirez grabbed 25 points to end with 115 points but just missed out on a medal finishing fourth overall.

Mexican Yareli Acevedo won gold with 128 points, Colombian Lina Hernandez copped silver with 121 and Catalina Soto of Chile was third with 120 points.

Ramirez would have been hoping for another medal after copping a silver medal in the omnium event at the 2023 Elite Pan American Track Championships in San Juan, Argentina in June.

In field hockey, the TT women suffered a 15-0 loss to the US in a Group A preliminary match. It was the second defeat against the US as the TT hockey men fell 6-1 to the Americans on Wednesday.