Sports
Jonathan Ramnanansingh
Sprint ace Nicholas Paul spearheads a three-man Trinidad and Tobago team for this weekend’s second 2024 Tissot International Cycling Union (UCI) Track nations Cup in Hong Kong, China.
Paul, who is yet to hit the track competitively for the year, vies for top honours and Olympic qualification in his pet events, men’s sprint and keirin.
Joining him will be fellow sprinter Kwesi Browne, who also features for TT in both events. Endrance cyclist Akil Campbell completes the team as he contests the four-stage men’s omnium.
This event is one of the three remaining Olympic qualifier meets for TT cyclists.
Campbell begins TT’s quest when he contests the opening round of omnium qualifying on Friday night, from 10:35pm (TT time).
If he advances out of this preliminary stage, Campbell faces the starter in the scratch race (6am) on Saturday, tempo race (6:40am), elimination race (7:47am) and points race (8:46am).
Just after midnight on Saturday, Paul and Browne begin their keirin qualification. This event runs its entire course on the day and concludes with the gold medal race from 8.12am.
The sprint pair return to the track on Sunday for the opening round – men’s flying 200m – of the men’s sprint event.
The remaining two Olympic qualifiers are the Elite Pan American Track Cycling Championship in California, USA (April 4-7) and the Nations Cup in Milton, Canada (April 12-14).
