A little more than a month after Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation technical director and national coach Erin Hartwell resigned from his position, he has taken up a similar coaching job with the Chinese cycling team.
Hartwell was yesterday seen coaching the Chinese team at the World Championships in Berlin, Germany and he picked up a bronze medal with his team in the Women’s Team Sprint event.
T&T’s team has since been reduced to just one man, Nicholas Paul, who is also at the World Championships in Berlin. He is the only rider with a realistic chance of qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, later this year in the Individual Sprint event.
Kwesi Browne is also in Berlin but as an observer only, as he did not qualify for his pet keirin event and also did not compete in the individual sprint event.
An official close to the local cycling federation said yesterday that only Paul, who is in the top ten in the world presently, will be able to compete in the individual sprint which pedals off on Saturday morning.
Hartwell resigned his T&T position after a barrage of criticisms that centred around a doping suspension for a member of the T&T sprint team at the 2019 Pan American Championship, accusations that a member of the team took equipment belonging to the team and the inability of the team to qualify for the team sprint at the Olympics.
Hartwell had told the local media soon before the UCI World Cup in Canada, as well as the World Championships more than a month ago, that the team had a realistic chance of qualifying based on the number of points that were available at the time.