Latham proves a real copy-Cav

LIVING with Mark Cavendish paid off as Chris Latham won a bronze medal at the World Track Championships with a finish that was straight out of the Manxman’s copybook.

The Lancastrian was a flatmate of Cavendish’s when the latter was staying in Manchester last year preparing for Rio.

And Latham, 23, needed to emulate Cavendish’s blistering sprinting speed in the scratch to win his first major medal.

He did so by fractions of an inch at the end of 60 pulsating laps.

“I’m well happy with that,” said Latham. “Cav needed somewhere to live. I think he was struggling for money so I helped him out. I was quite lucky – we trained together going up to the Olympics.”

Latham took the bronze in a packed finish. Poland’s Adrian Teklinski won the gold and Germany’s Lucas Liss silver.

“I just had to play it into a sprint,” said Latham. “There were a few ahead and I managed to catch a couple of them. It sets me up for the omnium, which is what I’ve been training for.”

It was Britain’s second medal of these championships but their miserable record in the men’s team pursuit at the worlds continued.

Britain lost the bronze-medal battle to Italy.

That’s one world gold only in eight years of trying despite Britain winning the last three Olympics in the event.

Steve Burke was sole survivor of the quartet – led by Bradley Wiggins – that won gold in Rio after they beat Australia in a world-record time.

But Burke insisted the youthful quartet – which also included Mark Stewart, Kian Emadi and Oliver Wood – would get it right in time for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. It will take some doing after seeing Australia beat New Zealand here.

But Burnley rider Burke said: “I’ve got one world title but two Olympics golds. Leading up to Rio we didn’t win one world title, even in a home worlds, so you can’t go off that.”

And Britain’s women’s team pursuit squad, with Elinor Barker the sole survivor from Rio, missed out on the medal round to Poland.

Olympic sprint bronze medallist Katy Marchant crashed out in an early round but has two events to go.