Tuesday 21 April 2015 17:11, UK
Great Britain ended the UCI Track Cycling World Championships without a gold medal for the first time since 2001 after Laura Trott could only win silver in the women’s omnium on Sunday.
Trott had been Britain’s last genuine chance of taking a world title from Paris and went into the second half of the six-race event in third place overall overnight.
A fifth place in the 500m time trial and then a third in the flying lap saw her climb up to second, 14 points adrift of leader Annette Edmondson, but she was unable to overhaul the Australian in the final event, the points race.
It left Britain 10th in the final medal table with three silvers, which is their worst performance at a World Championships in 14 years.
The other two silvers came in the men's and women's team pursuit, disciplines in which Britain remains strong, but they were uncompetitive in the sprint events and there are now genuine concerns about their ability to challenge for medals at next year's Olympic Games in Rio.
British Cycling technical director Shane Sutton said afterwards: "We didn't come to this worlds thinking, 'We're going to come in and win a shed load of medals'.
"We are doing all in our power [and] we know we can lead these guys into a successful Rio. We know where we are and we know what's needed. We also know that certain gaps can't be closed. I would say the women's sprint, at this moment in time, the gap is probably too far away."
Of her omnium silver, Trott said: "I am really happy. I guess some people are going to be like, 'Oh, she's only got silver', because that's what I got last year [in Colombia]. But I am really happy with it."
Britain's only other hopes of salvaging a gold on the final day of the World Championships were in the women's keirin and men's Madison, but neither materialised.
Jess Varnish was knocked out of the keirin in the opening round, while Owain Doull and Mark Christian briefly led the Madison but later fell away and eventually finished ninth.
The keirin gold went to Australia's Anna Meares, who claimed the 11th world title of her career by beating the Netherlands' Shanne Braspennincx in second and Cuba's Lisandra Guerra Rodriguez in third.
The French pairing of Bryan Coquard and Morgan Kneisky won the Madison, and the host nation were celebrating again minutes later when Gregory Bauge beat Russia's Denis Dmitriev 2-0 to claim the ninth world title of his career in the men's individual sprint.
