Nicholas Paul placed ninth overall in the Men's Sprint at the International Cycling Union (UCI) Track World Cup in Hong Kong on Sunday.
On the final day of the Cup at the Hong Kong Velodrome, the record-breaker at the Elite Pan American Track Championship in Bolivia with 9.100 seconds, was stopped by Japan's Tomoyuki Kawabata (JPN) in heat five of the 1/8 finals.
This after Paul progressed from the qualification round in the fifth spot with 9.766 in the 200m flying start. The top four riders automatically qualified for the 1/8 finals while fifth to 28th qualify for the 1/16 finals which meant that T&T's other cyclist in the event, Keron Bramble's time in the event ended at the qualifying stage after placing 32nd with 10.143.
Meanwhile, Paul raced off against New Zealand's Callum Saunders, who in his debut at the World Cup emerged the Keirin champion the day before, in the 1/16 final and he prevailed posting a time of 10.494 seconds to meet Tomoyuki. However, the 21-year-old local cyclist did not reach the quarterfinals against the Japanese cyclist who clocked 10.042. For his effort, Paul earned 250 points towards T&T's Olympic qualification quest.
Taking the gold medal was World champion Harrie Lavreysen of The Netherlands, who swept teammate and silver medallist Jeffrey Hoogland in the final. In third place was Tomohiro Fukaya of Japan.
On Saturday, Kwesi Browne failed to advance to the second round in the keirin event.
Browne, riding in heat four, needed to win the race to earn a qualifying berth in the second round, but he finished in the second position behind eventual winner Lavreysen who posted a quick time of 9.767 seconds.
Lavreysen was joined in the second round by Japan's Yudai Nitta, the winner of the first heat (10.240), Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang (9.948), Canada's Hugo Barrette (10.117), Germany's Maximillian Levy (10.665) and Thailand's Jai Angsuthasawit (10.034), all winners of their respective heat.
In the first round repechage, where the first rider in each heat qualify to second round, Browne again was second, this time to Czech Republic's Tomas Babek and finished tied for 13th spot with Nick Wammes (PTM), Jean Spies (South Africa), Aleksander Dubchenko (Russia), Shih Feng Kang (Taiwan) and Hersony Vera Canelon (Venezuela).
On Friday, T&T's Sprint Team of Njisane Phillip, Nicholas Paul and Kerin Bramble progressed to the second round with a seventh-place finish, but they could not go further after being beaten by France in the second round.
