Britain’s world track sprint failure bodes ill for their Olympic chances

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2015/feb/22/team-gb-world-track-cycling-championships

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It is hard to pinpoint the end of an era, but this week in Paris Great Britain’s spell at the top of world track cycling looks to have come to a close. The squad ended the week with three silver medals, the first time since 2001 that they have returned home without at least one gold.

“We didn’t come to this world championships thinking we’re going to come in and win a shed load of medals,” said the Great Britain technical director, Shane Sutton. “As long as we can get to a point where we can show that we’re going to be competitive, that was the key thing. To do that you need to look at attitude and I would say that 90% of the attitude is what we were looking for.”

Progress and attitude are all very well, but the bare facts are that at this point in the Olympic cycle, the week’s meagre haul stands in huge contrast to the nine medals, including two golds, Great Britain won at the world championships in Apeldoorn during 2011, or the 11 they brought back from Majorca in 2007. The men and women’s endurance disciplines look in sound shape, but the British did not threaten a medal in any of the eight sprint events, six of which will figure in Rio.

The attitude Sutton needs to reproduce throughout his squad is seen in the irrepressible Olympic omnium champion Laura Trott, who landed her third successive world championship silver medal in the discipline . Still only 22, this is the first time that Trott has returned from a senior worlds without a gold, having missed out on victory largely due to a 13th place in the opening scratch race, where she admitted she misread the speed of the track and got her tactics wrong.

Wins in the individual pursuit and the elimination on day one made up in part for that, and critically, in the elimination, there were moments where Trott clearly had to commit herself and did so. After Sunday morning’s flying lap and 500m time trial she had moved to second behind Australia’s Annette Edmondson, with a gap of 16 points.

The closing points race was largely a tactical stalemate. Trott and Edmondson marked each other closely, with Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands closing on Trott by the finish. Trott is finding the new format to her liking but is finding the event tougher now that the team pursuit, which precedes it, has moved to a third round and a longer distance.

There was more promise from the Madison relay event where Owain Doull and Mark Christian gained a lap early on and led the standings until 40 laps from the finish of the 200-lap event when their legs abruptly gave out – due perhaps to a stomach bug which hit the British camp at the weekend.

It was valiant stuff, but they ended up floundering as the French pair, Bryan Coquard and Morgan Kneisky, rode to gold, reflecting the fact that this has been an excellent week for the French, who closed the week with gold in the men’s match sprint for Grégory Baugé and bronze for Quentin Lafargue.

Sutton had warm words for Trott, a key presence in a team that clearly lacks a leader of the calibre of Sir Chris Hoy. “She just gets up there, keeps a smile on her face. The team does need an iconic leader, no two ways about that. Going into Rio we’d like to think we’ll be walking into the track centre with the likes of Brad Wiggins and Jason Kenny stepping up to the plate and people looking up and taking notice again.”

With only five major competitive outings left until the 2016 Games, Sutton and his squad are short of time and next year’s world championships at the London velodrome now look like a key milestone. “The [London] worlds is a big defining moment. Very little changes after that. In 12 months’ time hopefully everyone will have their mojo back and we’ll have a different conversation after the worlds next year. Hopefully. If not, someone bring a gun.”