T&T cyclists open Chile UCI meet with two golds and omnium silver

Trinidad and Tobago’s track cyclists made an immediate mark at their first UCI Class 1 event of the year, collecting two gold medals and a silver on the opening night of the Copa Chile de Ciclismo de Pista #1 in Santiago on Friday.

At the Velodromo de Peñalolén, sprint riders Makaira Wallace and Njisane Phillip both stood atop the podium, and endurance rider Teniel Campbell added silver as the twin-island team posted one of the strongest opening nights on the regional calendar.

Wallace set the tone in the women’s keirin final with a controlled but fast ride that carried her to gold. She held off Chile’s Daniela Colilef for silver, while Colombia’s Luna Alvarez took bronze. Home rider Paula Molina finished fourth, Argentina’s Valentina Mendez was fifth, and Colombia’s Marianis Sanchez rounded out the six-rider final in sixth. The result gave Wallace an early win against top regional opposition as T&T opened the new track season.

Phillip followed with the men’s individual sprint title, beating Colombia’s Cristian Ortega in straight rides in the final. Spain’s Esteban Sanchez won bronze after defeating Brazil’s Joaoa Vitor Da Silva. Phillip had already beaten Sanchez in straight rides in the semi-finals and eliminated Argentina’s Tiago Rivera in the quarter-finals. He led qualification with a flying 200-metre time of 0.772 seconds and later beat Chile’s Nicolas Vergara as he moved through the bracket.

Campbell kept T&T in the hunt in the endurance programme with silver in the women’s omnium. Chile’s Maite Ibarra topped the standings on 132 points, five ahead of Campbell on 127. Fellow Chilean Scarlet Cortes was third on 122, Canada’s Kimberly Chen fourth on 119, and T&T’s Alexi Ramirez fifth on 106.

Friday’s haul—two golds and a silver—gives the squad strong footing with one day of the Santiago meet still to run at a major UCI stop on the Americas circuit.