It takes great confidence to go up against the most accomplished sprinter of his generation, but Trinidad & Tobago's Nicholas Paul faced down double Olympic Champion and 12-time World Champion Harrie Lavreysen (Netherlands) with aplomb at the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow and found extra confidence as he looked towards the 2024 Paris Olympics.
If the 24-year-old was disappointed at his defeat in two rounds men's Sprint final in Glasgow's Chris Hoy Velodrome, it didn't show behind his beaming smile.
Paul holds the world record for the flying 200 meter sprint and a silver medal in the kilometre time trial from the 2021 World Championships but the sprint medal was a historic achievement for his country.
"It's a big deal for me, for my family, for Trinidad and Tobago to come out here and achieve the silver medal. I mean, congrats to Harry. He was the best rider on the day. I'm happy with the silver medal," Paul said.
Paul was just 19 when he set the world record at the Pan Am Championships in 2019 and has been steadily rising through the sprinting ranks. After his silver medal in the kilo in 2021, he won the individual sprint at the Nations Cup in Cali in 2022, doing the unthinkable and beating Lavreysen in two rounds to claim victory.
"That was a great feeling to be able to come out - in that, that year, I came out of the injury - so to come out and beat Harrie was a great achievement for me. So that's motivation," Paul said.
His string of results has put Trinidad firmly in the qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris where the medal - preferably gold - is the number one goal.
"I've been putting in the work. And I've been seeing it pay also, we just have to keep progressing until the Olympic Games," Paul explained.
In Glasgow, Paul defeated Lavreysen's Olympic team sprint partner Jeffrey Hoogland to move into the semifinal round. He then handily dispatched Poland's Mateusz Rudyk to face off against Lavreysen in the final.
It would be easy for any rider to be intimidated going against a rider with palmares like the Dutchman's but Paul isn't so easily cowed.
"I don't think about his dominance. Harrie is a great rider. I mean, I just have to come over here and work very hard and try the win the race - I don't look at achievements. I look at the race on the day."
While Glasgow was an important step toward assuring a spot for Trinidad in Paris, the more important day will come next August 9th.
"Harrie is a great, great, great athlete. He's been setting the bar very high. And for us as sprint athletes, we have to get there and try to race him as best as possible. We just have to keep putting in the work and racing as it comes.
"You just have to keep working to get stronger and faster each day."
