The likelihood of T&T's Nicholas Paul and Njisane Phillip meeting in today's final of the men's sprint event got even greater when both cyclists progressed from the quarterfinal round on Friday night at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru.
Last evening, Paul and Phillip swept their respective quarterfinal races to book their places in the semifinals with hopes of reaching the best of three final carded for Saturday night.
Paul easily won races one and two against Brazil's Kacio Fonseca Da Silva in heat one while Phillip did the same in heat two versus Colombian Santiago Ramirez Morales.
In their respective final four ride off, Phillip will be challenged by Venezuelan Hersony Canelon, who also swept his quarterfinal race against Leandro Bottasso and Paul will face off against Kevin Quintero of Colombia. The latter won two straight races against Jair Tjon En Fa of Suriname to advance.
For Saturday's, race one in the best-in-three semifinals will ride off at 1.15 pm (T&T time) and then race two at 1.56 pm. If the respective races reach a decider, it will be raced at 2.37 pm.
Earlier on Friday, Paul was phenomenal in the first stage of qualification of the men's sprint event in the Velodrome at the National Sports Village in Lima.
He clocked 9.808 seconds in the men's 200m flying start and broke the meet record of 9.977 previously held by his current teammate Njisane Phillip which he achieved at 2011 edition of the Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Paul progressed with the best time of the fastest 12 riders who qualified to 1/8 final.
So too, Phillip with the second-fastest time of 10.087.
Moments later, Paul and Phillip's tactics again worked superbly to have both T&T riders progress to the quarterfinal.
Paul was up first in the 1/8 Final and was challenged by Canadian Joel Archambault in heat one but the local cyclist was untouchable and advanced to the next round while his opponent went to the repechage.
Phillip also sent his challenger Cesar Marcano Sanchez of Venezuela to the repechage after winning heat two.
Both Paul and Phillip are seeking their second gold medal after partnering with Keron Bramble to reach the top of the podium in the men's team sprint on Thursday evening.
Late Thursday night, T&T's Akil Campbell was a seventh-place finisher in the men's omnium, after tallying 98 points from his four events.
Heading into his final race of the event, the points race, Campbell was on 78 points and crossed in seventh place to earn 20 points to add to his overall score.
Earlier, he nabbed 24 points in the scratch race following his ninth-place finish, then earned 30 points for placing sixth in the tempo race, to move up one spot into eighth before dropping back down ninth after he was the fifth rider to be ousted in the elimination race and had to settle for ninth place to seal 24 points ahead of the final race.
In shooting
At the Las Palmas Range, neither T&T shooters, Robert Auerbach Jr and Marsha Bullen-Jones, had great starts in their respective events.
On day one of the Men's Skeet qualification round, Auerbach Jr sits in 21st position of the 28 athletes with 44 points with rounds of 23 and 21, respectively.
Bullen-Jones will have her work cut out for her today after a poor start in the qualification round of the women's 25m rapid fire pistol.
In precision shooting, she produced 266 points after rounds of 89, 92 and 85 to be in a second-to-last spot in the event which has 27 shooters are participating.
For her to ascend from the 26th spot, she will have to be perfect in today's rapid category in the second stage in the qualifying phase.
Saturday's T&T schedule
Hockey
Men's Pool A - T&T vs Chile, 11 am
Shooting
Women's 25m Air Pistol Rapid Fire 2nd Stage - Marsha Bullen-Jones, 10 am
Men's Skeet 2nd Stage - Robert Auerbach Jr, 10.30 am
Cycling
Women's Sprint qualifying - Alexi Costa, 12.05 pm
Men's Sprint
Semifinals - Nicholas Paul, Njisane Phillip, 1.11 pm
Sailing
Women's Laser Radial Opening Series 1 - Kelly-Ann Arrindell, 1 pm
Men' Laser Standard - Andrew Lewis, 1 pm