Sutton expected GB success

Cycling: Technical director had faith in squad to bring back medals

British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton had no doubts his squad would deliver at the Track Cycling World Championships in London and make a statement ahead of the Rio Olympics.

Great Britain topped the medal table with five golds from 19 events, 12 months on from a woeful World Championships inSaint-Quentin-En-Yvelines, nearParis, wheretheyfailedtowinagoldforthefirst time since 2001 and finished with just three silver medals.

Britain won seven out of 10 track titles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and repeated the feat at the 2012 Games in London.

Although it is difficult to foresee that dominance being repeated in Rio, Sutton’ssquadleadtheworldoncemore.

“I was never in doubt that we were going to come out and perform well,” Sutton said.

“These things don’t come from left field. You see them coming in training.”

Laura Trott began the gold rush with victory last Thursday in the non-Olympic scratch race. She finished with two golds, winning the omnium for her seventh world title on Sunday’s final day.

Mark Cavendish and Sir Bradley WigginswontheMadison, thefinalevent of the championships, while Jon Dibben won the points race.

Theonlyvictoriesin10Olympicevents came through Trott in the omnium and Kenny in the sprint, but there was a silver for the men’s team pursuit squad and a bronze in the corresponding women’s event.

Pictures: Getty Images. Laura Trott was one of the GB medal successes at the Track Cycling World Championships, with the squad performance being praised by technical director Shane Sutton.