Paul into Sprint Semis at Track World Champs

T&T ace cyclist Nicholas Paul missed out on a medal in the men’s sprint final after he placed fourth in the Tissot UCI Track World Championship in Ballerup, Denmark.

In their third-place battle, Japan’s Kaiya Ota beat Paul in two straight rides.

In the first of the best-of-three rides, Ota won in 9.847 seconds, with Paul +0.409 seconds behind. In the second ride, the Asian cyclist was also ahead, in 9.869 seconds, with the T&T sprinter +0.217 seconds behind.

Holland’s Harrie Lavreysen took the gold medal in two rides in 9.641 and 9.726 as countryman Jeffrey Hooglan was +1.026 and +0.150 seconds behind, respectively, copping silver.

Previously, Paul booked his spot in the men’s sprint semi-final at the Tissot UCI Track World Championships on October 19 when he defeated Joseph Truman of Great Britain in two straight rides in the best of three races. Paul won the first race +0.121 and the other by 0.11 seconds in the 200m event.

Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands defeated Yuta Obara of Japan in two straight races. However, Jeffrey Hoogland of the Netherlands needed a decider to defeat Israeli Mikhail Yakovlev, while Kaiya Ota defeated Leigh Hoffman in two straight races.

In the round of 16, Paul edged out Tijmen van Loon of Netherlands (+0.099) in the 200m event. In the preliminary round, Paul finished with the third fastest time of 9.49 secs behind first-placed Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen 9.306 and Yakovlev 9.404 in second.

This comes after he was eliminated in the men’s keirin quarter-finals at the 2024 Tissot UCI Track World Championships in Ballerup, Denmark, on October 17.

Paul automatically advanced to the quarter-final stage after placing second in heat two behind three-time Paris Olympic gold medallist Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen.

Likewise, the top two finishers from the other four heats also progressed.

Paul did not fare well into the quarters and finished sixth of six riders in heat one of three. Only the top four finishers moved on to the semis.