Trinidad and Tobago chase Olympic cycling spots

Trinidad and Tobago cyclists chasing Olympic qualification have only three events to seal a coveted spot at the Paris Games.

TT Cycling Federation (TTCF) president Rowena Williams confirmed that TT will take part in three of the four upcoming Olympic qualifiers.

They are the Tissot UCI Track Nations Cup in Hong Kong, China (March 15-17) and Milton, Canada (April 12-14), and the Pam Am Track Championships in California, USA (April 3-7).

TT’s Olympic hopefuls, however, will miss out on this year’s first Nations Cup leg in Adelaide, Australia, from February 2-4.

Those expected to make the trek to China for the first qualifier are sprint phenom Nicholas Paul, keirin ace Kwesi Browne and endurance rider Akil Campbell. This potential list of hopefuls can change if someone gets injured.

This also means that TT will not be represented by a female cyclist at the 2024 Games. At the Olympics’ last edition in Tokyo, Japan, European-based women’s pro cyclist became the first Caribbean woman to compete in the Olympic road race.

Despite making some progress in 2023, injury and illness forced Campbell out a couple of crucial meets, which ruled her out of consecutive Olympic qualification. Compatriot and fellow roadster Alexi Costa-Ramirez is also highly unlikely to make up enough points to qualify.

Williams said, “For the road events, unfortunately, Teniel missed out on that qualifying spot. Her last opportunity went when she was unable to participate in the Pan Am Games.”

Those chasing qualification must do so through individual events (sprint, keirin, omnium) since TT does not have a team sprint team.

Williams could not confirm who would be selected to compete at the upcoming qualifiers but said that Paul should be easily on course for Paris, while there may be one other sprint and endurance spot up for grabs, for TT.

“They’re still looking to qualify, all the track cyclists are still looking to accumulate their points in the Nations Cup and so on. Hopefully, if we’re able to pull off a second spot in the track event for the sprinters, we look forward to that.

“We’re looking for another athlete to possibly qualify in the endurance. So we still hope in terms of their qualifying points. With Alexi, it doesn’t look like she might qualify for the Olympics as well, but we keep working,” Williams added.