Trini cyclist grabs historic medal at World Championship

Nicholas Paul ended a 30-year drought when he became Trinidad and Tobago’s first cyclist to win a world cycling medal after legendary national cyclist, Gene Samuel accomplished the feat in 1991.

Paul, 23, copped a silver medal in the men’s 1km (kilometre) time trial at the recent 2021 International Cycling Union (ICU) Track Cycling World  Championship in Roubaix, France.

Paul, who made his Olympic debut this year at the Tokyo Games, sprinted to the line on 59.418 seconds. Winning gold was Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland in 58.418 and taking bronze was German Joachim in 1:00.008.

Paul’s silver medal performance was T&T’s best showing ever at the World Championship.

The first cyclist from T&T to win a medal at a World Championships was Roger Gibbon when he took bronze in the 1km event in Amsterdam in 1967. Like Paul, he was 23 at the time.

T&T had to wait 24 more years to get a second medal when Samuel earned bronze in the 1km time trial in Stuttgart, Germany in 1991.