T&T’s Nicholas Paul was edged out for the gold medal by legendary Great Britain cyclist Jason Kenny, a six-time Olympic gold medalist in the 200m Sprint Elite Men’s final at the 2021 International Belgian Track Meeting yesterday.
In the final event of the day at the three-day competition sanctioned by the UCI and hosted by Belgian Track Cycling at the Wielercentrum Eddy Merckx, Ghent, Belgium, Paul lost out to 33-year-old Kenny 1-2 in their best-of-three rides final.
The T&T champion representing UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) made the first move in the final and won race won in 10.030 seconds, however, pre-event favourite Kenny, who won three gold medals at the last (Team Sprint, Sprint and Keirin) Olympics then won race two in 10.040 to even the series at 1-1 before racing home in 10.278 in the third and deciding ride for gold.
Suriname’s Jair Tjon EN Fa also of UCI WCC took the third spot after Great Britain's Jack Carlin defaulted.
Earlier yesterday in the semifinals, Paul defeated Tjon En Fa in three rides, winning the opener in 10.140 and the third 10.171 after the Surinamese had won the second ride, in 10,164.
In the other semifinals, an all-Great Britain affair, Kenny brushed aside the challenge of Carlin in identical times of 11.722 for the first two rides.
On Friday when the event pedalled off Paul was the third-fastest qualifier among the 29-man field in 9.958 to trail Carlin who raced home in 9.775 and Tjon En Fa, who was timed at 9.800 while T&T’s Kwesi Browne qualified 17th in 10.406.
In round two featuring 24 competitors, Browne faced off with Daan Kool of Holland but was ousted in the one-off ride with the latter winning in 10.835.
Already a qualifier for the Tokyo, Japan Olympic Games later this year, Paul came up against Lithuania’s Svajunas Jonauskas for a spot in the quarterfinals and took the win via the slowest winning time of the round, a 10.802 clocking while Tjon En Fa got the better of Kazakhstan’s Andrey Chugay of in 10.459.
The top T&T sprint cyclist came up against UCI WCC team-mate Jai Angsuthasawit of Thailand in the quarterfinals and won in three rides.
Angsuthasawit took the opening ride in 10.402 before Paul avoided elimination by winning the second ride off in 11.114 followed by his 10.242 timing in the decisive third and final ride.
Tjon En Fa meanwhile had a much easier time dismissing Germany’s Phillip Hindes in two straight rides, 10.457 and 10.123.
In the two other quarterfinals, Great Britain's Carlin blanked Belarussian Aliasksandr Hlova in two rides, 10.337 and 10.084 and fellow UK cyclist Jason Kenny topped Holland’s Theo Boss also in two rides, 10.201 and 9.948.
