Wallace 23rd on world sprint rankings after debut senior year

After just one year competing as a senior cyclist, Trinidad and Tobago’s rising cycling sensation Makaira Wallace has risen to 23rd on the International Cycling Union (UCI) women’s sprint rankings.

In her breakthrough year at the highest competitive level, Wallace produced multiple commendable and podium performances, which aided her climb up the global rankings.

Following her transition from a junior to elite rider at the start of 2025, Wallace pedaled off her debut year in fine style by setting a new national women’s flying 200m record by clocking 10.784 seconds at the UCI Nations Cup in Turkey, in March.

In August, she was still eligible to compete at the Junior Pan American Games and finished with a haul of three bronze medals. Wallace and TT teammates Kyra Williams and Phoebe Sandy opened their campaign with a third-place finish in the team sprint event. She then rode to bronze in the sprint and keirin events.

Wallace’s form earned, partnered with a couple of meets at the end of 2024, helped her qualify for her first UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Santiago, Chile.

As a result, she became the first female sprinter from TT to secure World Champs qualification.

In the women’s sprint, she advanced out of the flying 200m event but was eliminated by Japan’s Mina Sato in the 1/16 final. Sato went on to win gold.

Additionally, she set a new 500m time trial record at Worlds, clocking one minute and 09.822 seconds.

And in her final major event of the fading year, Wallace capped off 2025 with sprint silver and keirin bronze at the Bolivarian Games in Lima, Peru, in November/December. Earlier on, she was also crowned national women’s U23/elite keirin champion.

Looking ahead at the new year, Wallace has set her eyes on the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.