Cycling: Hoy leads way for Britain's track stars

(GETTY IMAGES)

Great Britain won a gold and silver medal on the opening evening of the first Track World Cup event of the season in Melbourne yesterday.

Following last month's European Championships, Britain's cyclists went in search of further Olympic qualification points in Australia, with Sir Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton winning gold in the men's team sprint and Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish taking silver in the corresponding women's event.

Ed Clancy was second after three events of the six-event omnium, while Britain opted not to enter the women's team pursuit and the men's madison, a non-Olympic event.

Kenny, Hoy – Olympic champions in the event – and Crampton finished third in last month's European Championships, but responded with gold yesterday after qualifying fastest. The British team met New Zealand in the final of the three-man, three-lap event, improving on their heat time to clock 43.829sec and take the gold medal.

Pendleton and Varnish finished second to China in the two-woman, two-lap team sprint event.

The British duo qualified second fastest and clocked 33.562sec in the final, but the Chinese pair Guo Shuang and Gong Jinjie were 0.322sec quicker as they took gold.

Clancy won the opening event of the omnium, the flying lap, was 12th in the points race and sixth in the elimination race, to find himself behind only Shane Archbold of New Zealand after the opening day of competition.

Today will see Pendleton and Varnish in action in the women's sprint and Hoy riding in the men's keirin, but Britain will not have a representative in the women's omnium.