Fast start from Great Britain

Three chances of gold on opening day

By Jonathan Turner. Last Updated: November 5, 2010 9:07pm

Varnish and Pendleton: Into final

Great Britain are through to three of the four finals on the opening evening of the European Track Championships in Poland.

The morning session in Pruszkow saw the GB team pursuit squads both dominate their respective qualifying sessions while the women's team sprint duo of Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish were also quickest in their competition as the qualifying process for the London Olympics in 2012 got under way.

However the GB men's team sprint trio - Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton - were edged out of the gold medal showdown by less than a tenth of a second and will instead battle for the bronze with host nation Poland.

A new-look women's team pursuit squad of Laura Trott, Katie Colclough and Wendy Houvenaghel were more than three seconds faster than their rivals and will meet Lithuania for gold this evening.

It was a similar story for their male counterparts of Steven Burke, Andy Tennant, Jason Queally and Ed Clancy who cruised into the final of the four-kilometre event against Russia with the fastest time.

And the third potential victory on the opening day lies with Pendleton and Varnish who outspeeded their rivals in qualifying for the women's sprint final. They registered a mark 33.381 and will meet France (33.521) for the gold medal.

Full results and photos from the event in Poland are available from www.britishcycling.org.uk.