Track World Championships: Laura Trott last hope for British gold after Jason Kenny exit
Last Updated: 21/04/15 5:12pm
Great Britain will look to Laura Trott to save them from their worst performance at a UCI Track Cycling World Championships since 2001 after Jason Kenny suffered an early exit in the men's sprint on Saturday.
Kenny, the reigning Olympic sprint champion, qualified only 10th fastest and was then beaten by 0.043 seconds by the unfancied Venezuelan Hersony Canelon in the first round.
The disappointment continued a nightmare week for the 26-year-old, who finished eighth in the men’s team sprint on Wednesday and was then knocked out of the keirin in the first round on Thursday.
He admitted afterwards: "I just fluffed it up. I just got caught napping. The margins are so fine. It's not concentration. Perhaps you could say a little bit of confidence. It's such a fine margin between looking like an idiot and looking like a hero."
Despite the defeat, Kenny was adamant he can get back to his best form in time for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
He added: "We can turn it around in 18 months. It's not like we are 100 miles away. There is all the time in the world. There's quite a long way to go and obviously that is our ultimate goal: to get on it and turn around those margins and stick our nose back in front."
Kenny's early exit means Britain will go into the final day of the championships having won only two silver medals so far, both in the team pursuits.
The last time they failed to win a gold medal at a World Championships was in 2001 in Antwerp, but Trott could still rescue them from a repeat of that on Sunday in the six-race omnium.
The 22-year-old started the event poorly, finishing only 13th in the opening race, the scratch race, but she bounced back brilliantly by winning both of the next two events, the individual pursuit and elimination race. That leaves her third overall at the halfway stage on 96 points, two behind second-placed Annette Edmondson and six adrift of leader Kirsten Wild.
Britain's only other chances of medals on the final day are in the women's keirin and men's Madison.
Elsewhere on the fourth day of the championships, Colombia's Fernando Gaviria, who twice beat Mark Cavendish on the road in January won gold in the men's omnium. Australia's Glenn O'Shea took silver and Italy's Elia Viviani bronze, while Britain's Jon Dibben finished 12th.
Switzerland's Stefan Keung won gold in the men's individual pursuit after mounting a late fightback to beat Australia's Jack Bobridge into silver. France's Julien Morice took the bronze, while Andy Tennant was Britain's highest finisher in fifth. Meanwhile, Germany's Kristina Vogel retained her world title in the women's individual sprint.
