Olympic cyclist Njisane Phillip is expressing relief that he was able to successfully medal at the Milton International Challenge in Ontario, Canada, on January 9 and 11, saying that it feels good to be back on the podium.
Phillip joined the elite men's sprint team of Keron Bramble and Kwesi Browne to win gold for T&T at the championships on the opening day of competition at the Mattamy Cycling Centre.
Two days later, he secured a bronze medal in the sprint event.
Speaking to the T&T Guardian, he said contributing to a team gold and moving on to a personal bronze provided him with the lift he so badly needed.
"It feels good to start off the year banging! I rode the second fastest time. It feels great to be back down in the 10.01 area. It shows I am progressing," he said.
Phillip added: "I feel very confident moving forward this year. I feel confident in my programme and myself again, so it's all uphill now. The UCI World Cup will be very hard, but it's all part of the programme and moving forward."
Phillip, Bramble and Browne were in Cali, Colombia, for this weekend's UCI Track World Cup. Phillip won this country's first medal at the event, a silver, back in November 2013.
At last year's UCI event back in December, held at the Lee Valley Velopark, which was familiar to Phillip�being the sporting facility at which he narrowly missed out on a bronze medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games�he struggled during the qualifying round.
He hoped to do better, citing that the World Cup was an event that would pre-qualify him for Rio 2016.
Since being struck down by illness in January 2014, the Rigtech Sonics cyclist faced repeated challenges as he tried to get his feet comfortably back on the pedal.
Phillip was hospitalised in critical condition for seven days at the start of 2014 and warded at the Providence Little Company of Mary Medical Center in California, USA. Up to today, his medical team still had no clue as to the cause of the ailment, which caused his kidney to fail.
Since then, he had been in and out of clinic as specialists conducted further lasix renal scans and monitoring his creatinine levels.
His last check-up was in September. The doctors gave him the all-clear to compete at the Pan American Games.
Before that, Phillip competed at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. He believed himself to be ready mentally for that major international outing, but later admitted to the T&T Guardian that the situation was otherwise. Today, he believed all those things were truly behind him citing his encouraging weekend performances in North America.
Now in Colombia, Phillip considered the opportunity to work with fellow Rigtech Sonics team-mate Bramble and fellow national cyclist Browne as promising.
He said: "They are two very talented young men and I am very happy to be a part of this young team. They are very hungry and they want to shine. I love that! We will continue medalling once we are together and training as a unit. I never did team sprint at the (UCI) World Cup level, but I am looking forward to it and I wouldn't want to do it with any other guys."