Olympics cycling: GB takes home silver in the men's sprint and women's pursuit
Great Britain took home two silver medals in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in track cycling from the women's team pursuit and the men's team sprint.
Katie Archibald, Laura Kenny, Neah Evans and Josie Knight settled for silver in the women's team pursuit, despite momentarily breaking the world record in the first round to reach the final.
The women beat the US in the first round with a time of 4:06.748, and almost ruined the celebration, as they crashed into themselves at the end.
But that world record was short-lived as Germany went faster in the next heat against Italy. The Germans broke the record once more in the final against Britain and won by more than six seconds.
Kenny told the BBC: “We knew (Germany) were going to go fast, but maybe not quite that fast.”
Asked about the prospect of adding two more medals to her tally, she added: “Yeah, I’ll just keep turning up and see what happens!”
Teammate Evans added: “It’s really special. Obviously we were defending champions and there are huge expectations because we do have such a good reputation, but there are so many strong nations.
“We came out fighting but it wasn’t to be this time.”
After a disappointing men’s team pursuit race, the men's sprint team won silver.
Jason Kenny, Jack Carlin and Ryan Owens, were comfortably beaten by the Netherlands team, who set a new Olympic record of 41.369 seconds. The Dutch have not been beaten in a team sprint event since 2017.
Kenny told the BBC: “We poured our heart into the second ride to get to the final and then just rolled the dice in the final.
“We geared up and just went for it, and obviously we knew we had a bit of ground to make up. I had nothing in the final, I was rubbish.”
Owens added: “It’s a dream come true. This team has got a pretty good track record and there’s a lot to live up to.
“It’s been a different few months but to come through it with these guys is amazing.
“We got our best out on the day, you have to show up in every race and there’s no pacing it in the team sprint.”
Meanwhile, Great Britain’s reign as Olympic men’s team pursuit champions since 2008 ended during the semi-final when Danish rider Frederik Madsen, who appeared not to have seen GB's Charlie Tanfield in front, crashed into him.
The crash ended the team pursuit, which is technically over if one team catches another on the track.
Judges deliberated for half an hour before announcing Denmark would advance to the final against Italy on Wednesday.