Local cycling ace Njisane Phillip will be chasing precious points tomorrow in Cali, Colombia when the UCI World Cup series continues.

Phillip, Trinidad and Tobago's only hope of gaining a spot in cycling at the London Olympics next year, will be competing in the match sprint as he aims to amass sufficient points to gain a berth.

Only spots for two countries at the Olympics are available to the Americas region, of which T&T are a part.

To get Trinidad and Tobago to London, Phillip will have to out-point riders from at least three countries from among the United States, Canada, Colombia and Venezuela who all are currently ahead of T&T in the Olympic race.

Earlier this month, Phillip picked up just over 100 points after getting to the quarter-finals of the last World Cup event in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Phillip, the national champion in both the sprint and kilometre time trial, was the 11th fastest qualifier with what, for him, was a slow time of 10.118 seconds.

In the quarter-finals, he was beaten by German rider Robert Forstemann. Phillip eventually placed eighth in the race to decide fifth to eighth place.

The event was won by the Olympic champion, Scotsman Chris Hoy.

Hoy beat Forstemann in the semi-finals and Denis Dmitriev of Russia in straight rides in the final.

Tomorrow, Phillip will be aiming to get closer to the speed which has seen him clock under ten seconds twice already this year.

At last month's Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, Phillip set a new Games record with a Flying 200 clocking of 9.97, before going on to earn a bronze medal.

On the sluggish concrete track at the Arima Velodrome in the National Championships, Phillip also set a new track record of 10.72 and broke the track record for the kilo in clocking 1:06.679.

Following the Cali meet, Phillip is expected to compete at World Cup events in Beijing in January and London in February.

In other cycling news, president of the Trinidad and Tobago Cycling Federation (TTCF), Rowena Williams, said the TTCF would be seeking to renew the contract of Desmond Dickie as the national cycling coach.

Trinidadian Dickie, a former coach of Canada and United States, was hired in April on a seven-month contract which ended last month.

Williams said the Federation wanted to continue with Dickie and will be having discussions with the Ministry of Sport next week about funding for the national coach.

By Garth Watlley

Source: www.trinidadexpress.com