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Senior Multimedia Reporter
For the second consecutive year, Trinidad and Tobago’s Nicholas Paul had to settle for the fourth-place finish in the men’s match sprint final when the Tissoot UCI 2026 Track World Championship ended at the Shanghai Velodrome in Shanghai, China, yesterday.
This occurred after Paul was defeated by Japan’s Kaiya Ota in his bronze medal best-of-three ride, missing the opportunity to compete for the gold medal due to a semifinal loss against the Netherlands’ Harrie Lavreysem.
In the bronze medal ride, Ota won the first in 9.766 seconds at a speed of 73.725 kilometres per hour, with Paul second over the line in 9.818.
And in the second ride, Ota made certain of the bronze with his win in 9.836 seconds, 0.256 seconds ahead of Paul.
Earlier in the semifinals, the 28-year-old Gasparillo-native Paul faced off with five-time Olympic gold medalist Lavreysen in their best-of-three men’s sprint match-up, and in a similar outcome to their meeting at the same stage in Santiago, Chile, last year, the European showed his superior class and came away with two straight wins to advance to the gold medal ride against Australia’s Leigh Hoffman, who also overcame Ota in two straight rides.
The 29-year-old Lavryesen won the first ride in 9.816 seconds at a speed of 73.350 kilometres per hour with Paul 0.120 seconds behind, while in the second ride, Lavryesen won in 9.822 seconds at 73.305 km/h with Paul 0.477 seconds adrift of the winner.
Hoffman won his first semis over Ota with a time of 9.773 seconds to his opponents, 9.928 seconds, while in the second ride, the Aussie clocked 9.630 seconds to Ota’s 9.741.
Last year in Chile, Paul, the reigning Pan American match sprint and keirin champion and multiple Commonwealth Games medal winner, was beaten by Lavrysen before also losing out in the bronze medal ride to Hoffman to end in the fourth spot.
The T&T cyclist, who won the silver medal in the 2023 world sprint, had earlier advanced through the qualifications (posting a flying 200m in 9.475 seconds), the round of 32, the last 16, and the quarter-finals against Israel’s Mikhail Yakovlev.
Lavreysen won both sprints in the gold medal match, but there is little doubt that the 29-year-old five-time Olympic champion was still made to work for it.
Hoffman was the fastest qualifier for the sprint, the South Australian laying down a stunning 9.285 for his flying 200m on Saturday and progressing comfortably through to the final.
Leading off in their first matchup, Hoffman appeared to be in control before briefly dipping off the racing line.
That momentary lapse washed away the Whyalla man’s speed and allowed Lavreysen to power past him in the home straight.
The Dutchman made no mistake in the second race, leading from the front with brutal power to stay away and win a record-extending 23rd world title.
No rider has managed to beat Lavreysen in an individual sprint at a world championship since Australian Matthew Glaetzer won gold in 2018.
But Hoffman showed once again that he is getting closer to becoming the first man to wrest the rainbow jersey from Lavreysen’s shoulders in almost a decade.
When the event began on Saturday, with the men’s individual sprint 200m flying start qualifiers contested over three-and-a-half laps, Hoffman raced to the top qualifying time of 9.285 seconds at a speed of 77.544 km/h, with Lavreysen second in 9.426 at 76.384 km/h and Paul, the third fastest in 9.449 at 76.199 km/h, followed by Poland’s Mateusz in 9.499 at 75.797 km/h, as the top four qualified straight to the last 16, with Ota, who clocked 9.501 at 75.781 km/h, just missing an automatic spot.
Meanwhile, T&T’s Njisane Phillip was the 20th fastest in the heats in 9.720 seconds at a speed of 74.074 km/h, while T&T’s third entrant, Kwesi Browne, was one of five riders from the field of 33 to miss out on advancing when he ended in the 32nd spot with a time of 9.977 at a speed of 72.166 km/h.
However, in the round-of-32 contested over three laps, Phillip was ousted by Italian Mattia Predomo in the one-off heat nine ride, with the European taking the heat in 10.226 seconds and the T&T cyclist finishing 0.028 seconds behind.
Paul, who had a disappointing outing in the keirin earlier in the week and failed to get past the repechage, then lined up in the men’s sprint last-16 against Czechia’s Dominik Topinka and easily won the third heat in 10.413 seconds, well ahead of his opponent, who ended 0.071 seconds behind.
In the quarterfinals, Paul won against Germany’s Henric Hackmann in two straight rides, winning the first closely contested heat in 9.949 seconds at 72.369 km/h, before a much more comfortable victory in the second ride in 10.020 at 71.856 km/h.
Hoffman also won his quarterfinal 2-0 against Great Britain’s Harry Ledingham, with Lavreysen and Ota completing the semifinals qualifiers with similar victories over Australian Daniel Barber and Mateusz, respectively.
Also on Sunday, T&T’s Makaira Wallace, who ended in the cellar spot of the women’s sprint qualifiers, was sixth in the heat five of the women’s keirin heat behind China’s Liying Yuan, Russia’s Alina Lysenko, Madagascar’s Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohammed Asri, Belgium’s Zita Gheysens, Ukraine’s Alla Biletska, and Canada’s Kelsey Mitchell.
In the fourth repechage heat, Wallace again finished in the cellar spot with Holland’s Hetty Van de Wouw and Australian Ellesse Andrews qualifying.
In the women’s Points Race, T&T’s Alexi Coast-Ramirez was one of three participants in the field of 24 who did not finish the event.
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