Oliva misses out on chance of world medal

WELSH rider Lewis Oliva was eliminated from the men’s Keirin event at the Track Cycling World Championships in Hong Kong.

Oliva was third in his heat and dropped into the repechage, where only one rider advanced.

The Welsh medical student finished fourth as his event came to a premature end.

Six-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy had tipped Oliva for a podium place on Twitter in the leadup to the World Championships.

Oliva said: “It didn’t put any pressure on me as I was going really well in training.

“The training would have pointed towards that and so would have the run of World Cup finals this year and the World Cup medal.

“It is pretty sad coming out all this way and going out in the first round, but that’s international Keirin racing.

“You can feel good, be going well but you can make some wrong decisions and end up on an early plane home.”

Great Britain’s women finished fifth in the team pursuit, narrowly missing out on a chance of the bronze medal.

Britain qualified in fifth place on Wednesday’s opening day, with Wales’ Olympic champion Elinor Barker swapping into the line-up for the first round and Emily Kay dropping out.

Barker, Ellie Dickinson, Manon Lloyd and Emily Nelson finished in four minutes 21.681 seconds and had to wait until the final heat before discovering if they would reach the ride-off for bronze.

But there was some joy for GB as Chris Latham claimed bronze in the non-Olympic scratch race for Britain’s second medal after Barker’s silver on Wednesday.