T&T cy­clists Ak­il Camp­bell and Alexi Cos­ta-Ramirez strug­gled on the open­ing day of com­pe­ti­tion when the UCI Track Na­tions Cup in Konya, Turkey, on Fri­day.

En­durance cy­clist Camp­bell was sev­enth in his Men's Elim­i­na­tion Race heat one qual­i­fi­er to fin­ish be­hind Den­mark's Noah Wulff, Aus­tri­an Tim Wafler, Czech Re­pub­lic's Ja­cob De­car Zun­ga, Bel­gium's Jules Hes­ters and Spain's Mario Anguela Yaguez. But in the fi­nal Camp­bell placed 20th of 24 fi­nal­ists.

In the Women's Elim­i­na­tion Race qual­i­fy­ing heat two, Cos­ta-Ramirez was a cred­itable sixth to trail Nor­way's Ani­ta Tvonne Sten­berg, Japan's Mizu­ki Ike­da, Ger­many's Lea Lin Teuten­berg, Czech Re­pub­lic's Gabriela Bar­to­va and France's Vi­o­lette De­may.

How­ev­er, in the fi­nal, Cos­ta-Ramirez could on­ly muster a 22nd spot fin­ish among the 23 rid­ers.

"To­day, was a great start to the week­end for me. This is the high­est lev­el of rac­ing there is on the track, and to be able to qual­i­fy sixth and make it in­to the fi­nals was a great achieve­ment for me," said Cos­ta-Ramirez af­ter her event.

"Sad­ly in the fi­nals some er­ror in po­si­tion­ing cost­ed me and I end­ed 22nd. Re­gard­less still a very good learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ence and I will take this with me and grow for the next race. I have grown as a rid­er a lot since the last na­tions cup I rode in 2023 and to now be able to be com­pet­i­tive with­in the field shows that I de­serve to be where I am to­day, fight­ing with the best rid­ers in the world.

"My first main goal to start the Om­ni­um on Sun­day will be to race the 40-lap qual­i­fy­ing points race. Once I get in­to the fi­nal, I will take one race at a time and work as hard as pos­si­ble on fin­ish­ing the four-race event with the best po­si­tion pos­si­ble.

"It's been a lot of hard work to get to where I am to be able to com­pete at this lev­el and I have re­al­ly great hopes that I will be able to qual­i­fy for this year's world cham­pi­onships in Oc­to­ber.

To­day, World Ju­nior Track medal­list Makaira Wal­lace, ranked 47th in the world among women will com­pete in the Women's Sprint qual­i­fy­ing round while Camp­bell faces the starter in heat two of the Men's Om­ni­um while two-time Olympian Njisane Phillip and Zion Puli­do make their de­but in the Men's Keirin in heat three and one, re­spec­tive­ly.

Top lo­cal cy­clist Nicholas Paul opt­ed out of the Na­tions Cup to fo­cus his prepa­ra­tions on the Elite Pan Am Track Cy­cling Cham­pi­onships in Paraguay from April 1- 6.