Kenny chases men's team sprint glory at World Championships

BySportsbeat

Updated 25/02/2014 at 17:24 GMT

Jason Kenny has warned his men's team sprint outfit must not be caught napping if they want to be successful at the Track World Championships in Cali, Columbia.

Britain's Jason Kenny celebrates during the victory ceremony after the track cycling men's sprint gold finals at the Velodrome during the London 2012 Olympic Games August 6, 2012

Image credit: AFP

Kenny has picked up two Olympic gold medals as part of the team sprint, at both Beijing 2008 and most recently London 2012.

But despite dominating on the Olympic stage, the team has struggled in other competitions, with their last World Championships victory coming back in 2005 in Los Angelos.

Back then the team included Sir Chris Hoy, with the six-time Olympic champion now taking on a mentoring role in Cali for his first World Championships since his official retirement.

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He will watch on as the men's team sprint take to the Velodromo Alcides Nieto Patino on Wednesday with world record holders Germany one of the favourites.

And with the rest of the world also pushing forward, Kenny knows the British team will need to be switched on.

"If you have a bad start it's difficult to get that back, it's over so quickly," said Kenny.

"Germany obliterated the world record in Mexico and they've been going well all year.

"We've not been going that bad, but everyone else has stepped forward, so we've slipped down the order a little bit."

One event in which Britain has however dominated at the World Championships is the women's team pursuit, picking up five of the six titles contested.

For the first time ever, this year's edition will see the event contested over four kilometres with four riders.

The British quartet of Joanna Rowsell, Dani King, Elinor Barker and Katie Archibald clocked a world record time of 4:16.552minutes at the December Track Word Cup round in Aguascalientes, Mexico.

And with Laura Trott also coming back into selection contention for the team, Rowsell admits the reigning Olympic champions are ahead of schedule in terms of their progress on the road to Rio.

"I was pleasantly surprised by our time in Mexico, because we went through 3k quicker than we went through 3k in London at the Olympics," said Rowsell.

"That was the first time we went quicker than Games pace. I knew we'd get to that point, I didn't think we'd get to that point this winter.

"We've progressed quicker than I imagined."

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