TTO cyclists 11th in men’s team sprint

TEAM TTO trio Njisane Phillip, Keron Bramble and Nicholas Paul took an 11th place finish in the qualification round of the men’s team sprint at 2019 UCI Track Cycling World Championships, in Poland, yesterday.

Their mark of 44.397 seconds was 1.823 seconds shy of the qualification round winners and eventual gold medallists, Netherlands, and was not enough to see them into the first round. The eighth qualifier was Great Britain, which clocked 43.704 seconds.

The Dutch cyclists Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and the vastly experienced Jeffrey Hoogland made light work of the silver medallists, France, in the final, which was essentially a repeat of last month’s UCI Track Cycling World Cup men’s team sprint final in Hong Kong.

Netherlands clocked 41.923 seconds, while France finished in 42.889 seconds. Russia took the bronze in 43.115 seconds, followed by Germany in 43.294.

Sixteen teams challenged the Team Sprint qualifiers with TT, under the guidance of American coach and manager Erin Hartwell, finishing ahead of Czech Republic, Spain, Belarus, Malaysia and Kazakhstan. Unfortunately for TTO, its standing at the end of the qualification round is likely to have an unfavourable effect on the team’s chances of qualification for the men’s sprint event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Kwesi Browne, TT’s fourth cyclist at the World Championships, will line up in the fifth heat in the men’s keirin, which consists of Jack Carlin (Great Britain), Marc Jurczyk (Germany), Matthijs Büchli, Krzysztof Maksel (Poland) and Patrick Constable (Australia).

The top two finishers in the heat will advance to the first round. All others will move to the repêchage.

On Saturday, Paul and Phillip are scheduled to challenge the qualifying round for the men’s individual sprint.