NILAI, Malaysia, CMC – Trinidadian cyclist Nicholas Paul claimed his second medal of the UCI Track World Cup when he captured silver in the men’s match sprint here on Sunday.
Fresh from a bronze medal performance in the keirin the day before, Paul found himself matched up against Dutchman Harrie Lavreysen. However, Lavreysen got the better of Paul, the Pan American champion, in two straight rides for the gold medal.
Hometown favorite Azizulhasni Awang, who won gold in the keirin, had to settle for the bronze medal after defeating Nikita Kiriltsev of Russia in the battle for third and fourth place.
Paul took care of Frenchman Rayan Helal to reach the quarterfinals, dismissed another Dutchman, Tijmen Van Loon, to move to the semis, before releasing his wrath on Awang to advance to the final.
Meanwhile, Makaira Wallace did not feature in the women’s keirin. She failed to lift herself from the round of 16 performance the day before in the sprints, finishing fifth out of five riders in heat three of the qualifiers.
Wallace, a double bronze medallist at the Junior Pan Am, has not fared well in the elite senior category, and her struggles continued on Sunday with a bottom-place finish, with only the top two required to advance.
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