Great Britain women strike gold as Chris Hoy loses out to Jason Kenny

Wendy Houvenaghel, Joanna Rowsell and Sarah Storey of Great Britain compete in the women's team pursuit. Photograph: Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

A packed Manchester Velodrome crowd had only just over an hour to wait before the first home gold medal of the World Cup meeting yesterday evening as Sarah Storey, Jo Rowsell and Wendy Houvenaghel produced the perfect combination of power and precision to overcome the World Cup leaders New Zealand in the women's 3,000m team pursuit in a near world-record time on an evening that ended with four British medals.

The only British gold of the evening came at the close of a pulsating final between two teams who had looked evenly matched in qualifying. Great Britain started the faster, led by .355sec after one kilometre, then faced the fight-back from the New Zealand trio of Lauren Ellis, Jaime Nielsen and Alison Shanks. The black-clad rivals closed in the second kilometre but came close to splitting apart under the strain, which decided the contest.

The British trio ended up just over a fifth of a second outside the world record with a time of 3min 19.577sec, more than a second faster than the previous British best they had posted in qualifying. It was also a personal landmark for Storey, who has crossed over from the paralympic team after winning five gold medals in Paralympic swimming and two in cycling. Here she moved another step closer to her goal of competing in the Olympics as well as the paralympic Games.

Their time bodes well for the world championships in five weeks even if the current strength in depth in this discipline is likely to result in much head-scratching among the selectors. Breathing down the necks of last night's gold medallists are the under-23 team of Katie Colclough, Laura Trott and Dani King, who registered 3min 23.355sec for fifth in qualifying, starting well and fading in the final kilometre to finish less than a fifth of a second from qualifying for the third-fourth ride-off.

There was another sub-plot amid the search for World Cup medals as Jason Kenny raced to silver in the men's match sprint, claiming Sir Chris Hoy's scalp along the way. The contest for supremacy among the British sprinters has taken an intriguing turn in the past 12 months and both Kenny and Hoy can be expected to compete in the sprint at the world championships, where nations can qualify more than a single rider per event. But the one-rider-per-nation rule at the Olympic Games means that every sprint confrontation between the triple Olympic champion Hoy and the young pretender has fresh importance now.

The pair met in the semi-final of the sprint, a repeat of the Olympic final in Beijing and their first head-to-head since Kenny beat Hoy at last year's national championships. The lighter, smaller Kenny, in his early 20s, has gained in strength and power since Beijing while the bulkier more muscular Hoy is "still nudging his personal bests forward", as one coach put it, but as a mature athlete cannot make such spectacular gains.

This contest went Kenny's way and he raced into the final against Kevin Sireau of France assured of gold or silver. What is certain is that Kenny now has the edge over Hoy and that the Scot has suffered a number of serious reverses in match sprinting in the past 12 months. Here was another: in the opening round Kenny forced Hoy to lead out into the final lap, then surged past in the back straight in the trademark British style.

In round two the roles were reversed, Hoy taking Kenny's slipstream and making the younger man take the initiative, but the result was the same. The 22-year-old responded with a late effort, pushing ahead just before the bell, with Hoy forcing his way up off Kenny's back wheel off the final banking but just failing to pass him before the line.

"There was nothing in it, he made a couple of mistakes and I was able to capitalise on them. He's still mega strong," said Kenny. Hoy went on to take the bronze from Maximilian Levy of Germany and in the final Kenny won the opening ride against Sireau but lacked the firepower to come past the Frenchman in the next two rounds and was defeated 2-1.


source :  http://www.guardian.co.uk/

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