Nicholas Paul and Teniel Campbell lifted the dark cloud hanging over the sport of cycling locally when they completed a clean sweep of the T&T Olympic Committee (T&TOC) “Sportsman of the Year” and “Sportswoman of Year” awards for their discipline at the body’s annual end of year awards ceremony Hyatt Regency in Port-of-Spain, on Sunday.

With news of the Pan Am Sports executive’s decision to strip Team T&T’s medal at the Pan Am Games in Peru and the team going to arbitration on the matter still fresh on people’s minds, Paul and Campbell were still the obvious choices last evening.

The highlight of Paul’s very successful 2019 season was his new world record run in the Men’s Flying 200 metres, which he set at the Elite Pan American Track Cycling Championships in Cochabamba, Bolivia. There, he lowered the record to 9.100 seconds, shaving 0.247 off the previous record set by Frenchman Francois Pervis in 2013. He also broke his own Pan American record of 9.378 seconds which he set in Mexico in 2018, and also took gold when he defeated Suriname’s Jair Tjon En Far in two rides in the final a day before with a blistering 9.583 time.

Paul, who kept his Pan Am Lima gold medal for the individual men’s sprint, was also named the TTOC’s ‘People’s Choice” awardee on the night.

Recently, Paul was also among the nominees for the first-ever Pan American Sports Awards in the “Best Male Athlete” category alongside Grenada’s Anderson Peters (athletics), Cuba’s Mijain Lopez (wrestling), Brazil’s Francisco Barretto (gymnastics) and Venezuela’s Ruben Limardo (fencing).

Campbell meanwhile topped off a brilliant 2019 by becoming T&T’s first-ever female cyclist to qualify for the Olympics. She was one of the stars for the T&T at the Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in July, where she copped four medals, including three bronze and a gold in the Scratch, Omnium, individual pursuit and the road races respectively.

At just 21 years old, Campbell also became the first double Caribbean Women’s Road Champion, CAC gold medallist and the first cyclist to receive the Hummingbird Medal (Silver) for her achievements in the sport.

In addition, Campbell also signed on for UCI Women’s Pro Cycling Team Valcar Cyclane, of Italy, for the 2020 competitive season.

Cougars Athletic Club sprinter Shaniqua Bascombe and US-based Tobago-born javelin thrower Tyriq Horsford meanwhile took the junior equivalent of the awards.

2019 TTOC awardees:
Junior Sportsman of the Year: Tyriq Horsford (athletics)
Junior Sportswoman of the Year: Shaniqua Bascombe (athletics)
Sports Personality of the Year: Erin Hartwell (cycling coach)
Senior Sportsman of the Year: Nicholas Paul (cycling)