T&T’s sprint ace Nicholas Paul claimed the gold medal in the final of the match sprint event on the final day of the UCI Track Nations Cup at the Mattamy National Cycling Centre in Milton, Canada on Sunday.
The 24-year-old defeated Poland’s Mateusz Rudyk in two straight rides to add a gold medal to the bronze he won on Saturday night in the final of the keirin.
Rodyk, a gold medallist at the 2016 UEC European Track Championships in the team sprint, went for the early advantage well before the bell lap in the first ride, but he did not have the legs to hold off Paul in a dash to the finish.
Later in the second ride, Rodyk, mindful of his counterpart’s ability to accelerate, again went out early, but Paul made sure of the gold medal by blazing past him on the stretch to cross the finish line comfortably for the win.
Earlier in the day, Paul made his intentions of another medal in Milton known from as early as the flying 200-metre qualifying sprints, the event that he holds the record for, back in 2019, courtesy of a blistering 9.100 seconds ride that was set at the Elite Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
During the gold medal ride, the Gasparillo resident was again at his best, setting the fastest time at 9.575, with Suriname’s Jair Tjon En Fa being the second-fastest on the morning and the pair of Rudyk and Matthew Glaetzer (Australia) securing the top four places going into the resulting match sprint events later on.
Kwesi Browne, the other T&T rider who was dropped on the way to the keirin second round on Saturday, was the 24th qualifier for the match sprint, but he faced a test in the round of 16 that he could not overcome.
China’s Yu Zhou stopped Browne in his track after just one ride to advance. However, Paul whose bronze medal in the keirin final on Saturday night was his first medal since his injury last year appeared to be finding the form that earned him multiple medals in the past.
Paul disposed of Mattia Predomo of Italy on his way to the quarterfinal round, where he then took care of Zhou, the Chinese rider who ousted his countryman in the round of 16 for his entry in the semifinal round, which also came with a taste of sweet revenge.
And in the semifinals where he went up against Australian Matthew Richardson, who twice defeated him in Canada this weekend, Paul proved to be a cut above his opponent.
In the first ride, the man who made it to the quarterfinal round of the keirin event in only his debut appearance at the Olympic Games in 2021, skilfully held off the Australian to the outside before driving to the finish with aplomb.
And in the second ride, he produced blinding speed to drive past Richardson for his berth into the final where he faced Rudyk, who defeated Malaysian Shah Muhammad Sahrom in two straight rides in the other semifinal, for the right to contest the title ride.
On the other hand, T&T’s female rider Alexi Costa-Ramirez, in her first taste of action at Milton, failed to advance past her heat two of the women’s omnium.