GB SILVER LINING

Gold eludes Kenny & Co in team sprint

IT was left to Jason Kenny to add to the family’s cycling silver after wife Laura defied doctor’s orders but could not defy the odds.

On the opening day of the Track World Championships Kenny, Jack Carlin and Ryan Owens broke the British record to reach the men’s sprint final before they were beaten to gold by Holland, who broke the world record.

And that came after Laura Kenny finished fourth in the scratch race, just a month after breaking her shoulder in a crash in Canada. One doctor said she was crazy to return so soon.

This was not the sort of golden day Great Britain are used to on the track. And in their blue riband event team, the men’s team pursuiters came a worrying fifth.

But with five months to go until the Olympic Games, both Kenny results were at least encouraging. That’s especially the case for the men’s team sprinters, who have won gold at the last three Olympics but before last night had claimed just one medal in eight World Championships.

Even though the flying Dutchmen will take some catching in Tokyo, Kenny & Co are on the right track, especially with new bikes and kit still to come.

Kenny, Britain’s joint most successful Olympian of all time, said: ‘It was a good day, I’m really happy. It was a big PB for us and a massive step forward.

‘We will work every second of every day to close that gap to the

Dutch. A lot can happen in five months. We will see if we can rise to the challenge.’

For Laura, it was an achievement to be on the start line given that a specialist said she would not even make Tokyo following her fall.

But after just missing out on a medal in the 10km non-Olympic event, she said: ‘I’m a little bit disappointed. Fourth is the worst place you can finish.

‘I feel like I had good legs and that’s almost why it is frustrating. My shoulder is still broken but when I am on the bike, I cannot feel it at all.’

She will ride again in tomorrow’s omnium — a race in which she has won two Olympic golds — having sat out her other specialism, the team pursuit.

In her absence, Elinor Barker, Katie Archibald, Ellie Dickinson and Neah Evans qualified for the next round second fastest, behind the USA, and will target gold tonight.

However, the men’s quartet of three-time Olympic champion Ed Clancy, rising star Ethan Hayter, Charlie Tanfield and Ollie Wood suffered the ignominy of not even making tonight’s medal races.

But Clancy said: ‘Our best is yet to come. We will roll out a bit of magic dust. The dream is still to win.’