Great Britain’s Laura Trott put herself in contention for an omnium medal with a classy performance at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships on Saturday.
After the first day of the six-discipline event, Trott sits in third overall having won two of the day's three races in Paris.
The 22-year-old finished 13th in the opening scratch race behind rivals Sarah Hammer, Australian Annette Edmondson and Dutch rider Kirsten Wild in a bunch sprint.
But the Olympic champion responded in typically fighting fashion, producing an excellent ride to win the individual pursuit in a time of 3:32.798.
And Trott, who has taken silver in the event at the last two world championships, was in a different class as she won her trademark, the elimination race.
Trott sits on 96 points, two behind Edmondson and six adrift of Wild ahead of Sunday's events.
Great Britain’s sprinters endured a difficult day as Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner were knocked out in the 1/16 finals.
Kenny was caught off-guard by Venezuelan Hersony Canelon who led the race out and was able to fend off the three-time Olympic champion in the final 30 metres.
Skinner was drawn against Gregory Bauge and attacked from the off but was unable to hold off the Frenchman, who rounded the Scot on the final lap for victory.
"I just got caught napping. The margins are so fine,” Kenny said. "It's not concentration. Perhaps you could say a little bit of confidence.
"We can turn it around in 18 months,” Kenny added of the Rio Olympic Games.
“It's not like we're 100 miles away. There's all the time in the world.
"There's quite a long way to go and obviously that is our ultimate goal - to get on it and turn around those margins and stick our nose back in front.”
Jon Dibben finished the men’s omnium in 12th with three disciplines on the second day of the event.
Starting the day in 11th, Dibben was 15th in the kilo and 17th in the flying lap to go into the last event, the points race, with a total of 78.
A gutsy performance saw Dibben take two laps on the field as well as three sprint points to take his total to 123 and lift him three places overall.
Colombian Fernando Gaviria Rendon defended his title with Australia’s Glenn O’Shea second and Italian Elia Viviani third.
“Overall, not a great result,” Dibben said.
“The times in the timed events weren’t what I had done in training and what I expected but sometimes it doesn’t come together like you want it to.
“I’ve still got the confidence there. I’ve done the times before in the timed events. If I’d have done my best times that I’d done before this weekend I’d of been right up there really.”
Team pursuit silver medallist Andy Tennant finished a credible fifth in the men’s individual pursuit. The 27-year-old just missed out on medal ride with a well-paced four kilometres in 4:20.733.
Swiss rider Stefan Kueng won gold, Australian Jack Bobridge silver and France’s Julien Mourice bronze.
In the women’s scratch race Elinor Barker was 17th.
Barker, who also has a silver medal in the team pursuit from the championships, attacked with four laps to go but was caught in the final lap and fell back. Kirsten Wild of the Netherlands won the title.
The Great Britain Cycling Team have two silver medals in the championships so far from the men’s and women’s team pursuit events.
The championships finish on Sunday with the final three events of the women’s omnium for Laura Trott and Jess Varnish in the women’s keirin.
Dibben returns to the track with Owain Doull for the men’s Madison and the men’s sprint competition concludes.
Results
Women's omnium - scratch race
Women's omnium - individual pursuit
Women's omnium - elimination race
Men's omnium - kilo
Men's omnium - flying lap
Men's omnium - points race and final standings
Men's sprint - qualifying
Men's sprint - 1/16 finals
Men's individual pursuit
Women's scratch race
