Kenny seventh fastest

Jason Kenny Credit: Tim Ireland/PA Wire/Press Association Images

Bolton's Jason Kenny, fresh from winning the men's Keirin, qualified seventh fastest in the men's sprint on day four of the Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk.

The Olympic sprint champion was seeking to add the world title after claiming his first on the bike on day three; his 2011 sprint win was awarded retrospectively after Gregory Bauge was stripped of the gold medal for an anti-doping infringement.

Frenchman Bauge, world champion in three of the last four years, was absent at the Minsk Arena, but the depth of the field was still strong and Kenny, perhaps fatigued from his Keirin effort, clocked 10.048 seconds in the flying lap to place seventh, with Francois Pervis of France qualifying quickest in 9.879secs.

Four riders clocked beneath 10 seconds, with Robert Forstemann of Germany second quickest in 9.924, Sam Webster of New Zealand third fastest in 9.958 and Germany's Maximilian Levy fourth in 9.971.

Twenty four riders qualified for the first round. Philip Hindes was 19th in 10.195 and Matt Crampton, the third Briton, 23rd in 10.280.

Ireland's Eoin Mullen was 27th in 10.329 and eliminated from the competition.

Kenny will meet Pavel Kelemen of the Czech Republic in the first round, with Crampton against Forstemann and Hindes against Stefan Botticher, another German.