Lack of gold sees Trott target London success

After two silver medals in the opening four days of competition in Saint-Quentin-En-Yvelines, near Paris – both in the team pursuits on day two – all hopes turned to Trott in the six-discipline omnium.

But the five-time world champion and double London 2012 gold medallist was playing catch up after placing 13th in the opening scratch race on Saturday and finished well adrift of Australia’s Annette Edmondson.

Britain had one last opportunity in the men’s Madison, a non-Olympic discipline and track cycling’s equivalent of wacky races, but a commendable effort from Owain Doull and Mark Christian went unrewarded.

It means Britain, the once dominant nation of track cycling, have three silver medals from the penultimate Track World Championships prior to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

Britain previously failed to win a gold in Antwerp in 2001, while this was their smallest haul since the 2003 Track World Championships in Stuttgart, when they won one medal of each colour.

Trott, beaten in the team pursuit for the first time at her fifth World Championships, was “gutted” after missing out on the rainbow jerseys she coveted.

But the 22-year-old from Cheshunt vowed to “come back flying at the next worlds,” which take place in London next March, after a third successive world silver in cycling’s equivalent of the heptathlon.

She said: “London’s massive, isn’t it? It’s going to be a home crowd, a home track. It will be about performing there.

“I’ve always tended to perform in front of a home crowd. That will be a massive target for me.”

Olympic champion Jason Kenny, Trott’s fiance, would have been expected to be in contention in the sprint, won by Gregory Bauge of France yesterday, but exited in the first round on Saturday. His demise piled expectation on Trott, who won world and Olympic omnium gold in 2012.

Jess Varnish was hampered by overnight illness as she missed out on advancing to the semi-finals of the women’s Keirin, won by Australia’s Anna Meares.