National cyclists, Quincy Alexander and Haseem McLean’s competitive campaign came to an unexpected end yesterday when both athletes failed to advance in the Men’s Flying 200m event at the ongoing International Cycling Union World Cup in Cali, Colombia.
In the qualifying race where only the top-16 advance to the next round, McLean could only manage a 22nd place finish, while Alexander followed closely behind in 23rd position.
McLean clocked 10.972s and Alexander recorded a 11.209s finish. The former’s average speed stood at 65.621 km/h while the latter clocked 64.234 km/h.
Today, Phillip Thiele (Germany) will ride against Valentin Savitskiy (Russia) in the first semi-final while Colombia’s Fabian Puerta and Eric Engler do battle for a finalist spot in the second semi-final.
Yesterday’s racing also saw McLean ousted in the second round of Men’s Keirin competition. After progressing out of the first round repechage, McLean was scheduled to line-up against Marc Schroeder (Germany), Ilya Okunev (Russia), Quentin Lafargue (France), Gennadiy Genus (Ukraine) and Angel Pulgar (Venezuela) in the following stage. Even though the local rider rode valiantly, he was edged at the finish line and had to settle for fourth place.
This ride was keenly contested and judges were forced to view the photo finish to officially separate McLean and the eventual third-place rider.
A bit upset about the judges’ decision, McLean voiced his concern via a social networking site stating: “They say he (third-placed rider) beat me, I don’t think so! But that’s what they say! Sorry Trinidad! Gonna shake it off, got to ride 7/12 now and pick up those valuable world points!”
McLean was scheduled to contest the 7/12 final last night, but up to press time, results were not yet available.
He was expected to go up against Pulgar, Genus, Francesco Ceci (Italy), Saifei Bao (China) and Leandro Botasso (Argentina) in this race. On Thursday, Alexander went down in the opening round of the Men’s 1km Time Trial event. He finished 15th in a time of 1:05.365s.
Although eliminated, the Beacon riders are determined to dust themselves off and continue working toward attaining crucial World Cup points, which would eventually add up and hopefully provide an Olympic berth for either of the riders at the 2016 Summer Games in Brazil.
By JONATHAN RAMNANANSINGH
Sorce: www.newsday.co.tt