Cy­clist Makaira Wal­lace sprint­ed away with the bronze medal in the women’s keirin event, while her com­pa­tri­ot Nicholas Paul booked his place in the men’s match sprint fi­nal at the Bo­li­var­i­an Games in Li­ma, Pe­ru, Tues­day (De­cem­ber 2).

The two were set to hand T&T its first pair of medals, with the first de­liv­ery com­ing from the JLD Acad­e­my rid­er.

Wal­lace, con­test­ing a six-woman fi­nal, made an ear­ly move when the derny en­tered the track but found her­self in a mad rush when it left. The JLD rid­er made strides from fourth to third in a dash to the fin­ish and held off Colom­bia’s Ju­liana Gaviria for a podi­um fin­ish when they crossed the line.

Colom­bia’s Ste­fany Cuadra­do se­cured the top spot and gold medal, with Venezuela’s Ja­ly­ma Ro­driguez se­cur­ing the sil­ver medal. Wal­lace’s third-place fin­ish had al­so mo­ti­vat­ed her to a qual­i­fy­ing berth in the women’s sprint.

Mean­while, Paul, who awaits a chance to chal­lenge for an­oth­er gold medal is us­ing the Games as part of his prepa­ra­tion for the Pan Amer­i­can Cham­pi­onships set for Feb­ru­ary next year. He warmed up with a se­ries of ex­cel­lent dis­plays and is ex­pect­ed to cul­mi­nate the event with a gold medal. He will come up against Colom­bian Kevin Quin­tero.

Ear­li­er, Paul made light work out of his op­po­nents, start­ing with Chile’s Rober­to Igna­cio Llannes, whose plot for the Trinida­di­an in the quar­ter­fi­nal lacked speed in the end. In the ini­tial ride of the quar­ters, the Chilean rushed out front to keep Paul at bay, but he could do noth­ing when Paul, once the fastest man on wheels, moved in­to over­drive, twice seal­ing the vic­to­ries to qual­i­fy for the semi­fi­nal.

Lat­er, in the round of four, Paul, who in Sep­tem­ber 2021 par­tic­i­pat­ed in the UCI Track Na­tions Cy­cling Cup and came away with triple gold medals in the Ki­lo Time Tri­al, Keirin, and the sprints, again dis­played ex­treme sprint­ing pow­er to hold off Al­ber­to Tor­res of Venezuela in the open­ing ride of the semi­fi­nals.

In the sec­ond ride, Tor­res tried to force a third de­cid­ing ride-off, as he held Paul at bay at the top of the track. How­ev­er, Paul broke loose by dip­ping in­to the in­side to be­gin an all-out dri­ve to the fin­ish line, which he pre­vailed in for his place in the fi­nal.

In the oth­er semi­fi­nal, Colom­bia’s Kevin Quin­tero de­feat­ed his coun­try­man Cris­t­ian Or­te­ga in two straight rides to set up a show­down with Paul.