Wednesday 18 February 2015 22:34, UK
Great Britain’s men’s and women’s team sprint squads both failed to progress past the qualifying round at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Paris.
The men’s trio of Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner endured a particularly difficult race, finishing eighth after Skinner, riding as third man, became detached from the front two on the first of the three laps.
That meant the 22-year-old Scot had to ride without protection from the wind from his team-mates and he inevitably tired in the last lap, stopping the clock in 43.808 seconds, which was just under half a second adrift of the top-four place they needed to progress to the medal finals.
Kenny said afterwards: “Basically me and Phil set off without Callum on our wheel. That was it. Even Chris [Hoy] got it wrong once or twice. It happens to the best of us. It's such a fast event, it's over so quickly, that when it goes wrong it goes wrong all at once and there's not much you can do about it.
"Also, we have got no way of telling if he is on the back. We are just going hell for leather on the front and kind of praying that he is there. Unfortunately, he wasn't this time round.
"He [Skinner] has got nothing to feel bad about. It's a team event. Today I don't feel we got the best out of ourselves. We all have to take responsibility for that."
There was controversy in the gold-medal final, where defending champions New Zealand defeated France, only to be then relegated for an illegal change, handing the title to the host nation. Germany beat Russia to claim the bronze.
The British women’s sprint duo of Jess Varnish and Victoria Williamson also qualified in eighth. Their time of 33.583 seconds was 0.705 seconds adrift of the top four.
China won gold after beating Russia in a world record-breaking time of 32.034 seconds, while Australia defeated the defending world champions, Germany's Kristina Vogel and Miriam Welte, to claim bronze.
The day’s only other race saw Germany’s Stephanie Pohl win the women’s points race ahead of runner-up Minami Uwano, of Japan, and third-placed Kimberly Geist, of the United States.
