Jason Kenny confident GB men can win sprint medals at 2016 Olympics

Jason Kenny is confident Great Britain have enough time to improve ahead of Rio 2016

Jason Kenny is adamant Great Britain can challenge for men’s sprint medals at next summer’s Olympic Games in Rio despite a difficult past three years.

Britain won the individual sprint, team sprint and keirin in a clean sweep of the London 2012 Games but have claimed only four gold medals at major international competitions since.

Their fall from prominence appeared to hit its nadir at this year's World Championships in Paris, when the team sprint trio finished just eighth and British riders were all knocked out in the first rounds of both the individual sprint and keirin.

Kenny and his fellow British sprinters have struggled for consistency in the past three years

There are only five meetings left before the 2016 Olympics, starting with the European Track Championships in Switzerland next week, but Kenny is confident Britain's men can return to the top of the sport in time for Rio.

He told skysports.com: "We are not as far back as Paris suggested. We base everything on the team sprint, and when we look at our team, we finished eighth in Paris, but there is no doubt in my mind that we are better than that.

"We need to get a bit better, but we have got plenty of time to do it in. We have got a good enough team and I'm happy with the coaches and support staff. Everything around us is in place to give us the best opportunity to go forward and get something from the Games.

Kenny was unable to win a medal at this year's World Championships

"We won a World Cup just before the worlds [in Paris], so we proved we should be up there fighting for the podium, certainly there or thereabouts, ready to pick up some medals."

Kenny's confidence ahead of Rio stems partly from the 2008 and 2012 Olympics, when Britain picked up plenty of medals in the build-up but hadn't dominated in the way they would at the Games themselves.

Philip Hindes (right), Jason Kenny (centre) and Callum Skinner (left) in action in the team sprint in this year's World Championships

He added: "I take a bit of comfort from my experiences in the past. It's easy to get stressed out and think, 'There's only a year to go', but when I look at where I was before London and before Beijing, a year out I was in pretty much the same situation, if not slightly worse.

"I certainly wasn't winning everything and experience tells us that there is time."

The European Track Championships take place in Grenchen from Wednesday, September 14, to Sunday, September 18.