Jason Kenny equalled Sir Bradley Wiggins' Great Britain record of eight Olympic medals as the men's team sprint finished with silver in Tokyo, while Laura Kenny also claimed a silver as GB came second in the women's team pursuit behind Germany
Wednesday 4 August 2021 11:35, UK
Jason Kenny drew level with Sir Bradley Wiggins as Great Britain's most decorated Olympian after picking up an eighth medal with silver in the men's team sprint in Tokyo.
However, he missed the first of his three chances to move clear of Chris Hoy's Olympic gold medal tally.
Kenny, tied with Hoy on six golds, rode alongside Jack Carlin and Ryan Owens, but the trio were comfortably beaten by all-conquering Netherlands, who set a new Olympic record of 41.369 seconds.
With the British riders struggling to hold one another's wheels they finished three seconds down on the Dutch, who have not been beaten in a team sprint event since 2017.
Though he missed gold, Kenny still earned an eighth Olympic medal, moving him level with Wiggins.
But the trio will be disappointed with their performance in the final. In the first round, they had set a time of 41.829 and though that would still have been beaten by the Dutch, it was proof the final was nowhere near Britain's best.
Kenny still has two more chances to add to his medal haul in these Games - he is due to compete in Friday's individual sprint before Sunday's keirin - but the challenge of beating the Dutch has clearly got no easier.
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, Laura Kenny and Great Britain's women's team pursuit squad had to settle for silver as Germany won gold in a new world record time.
Kenny had won gold in every Olympic event she had entered prior to this race and began the Games with the potential to reach seven golds and perhaps become Britain's most decorated Olympian.
But though the two teams had been closely matched in qualifying and in the first round, Germany utterly dominated the final, stopping the clock in four minutes 04.249 seconds, winning by more than six seconds.
Both teams had broken the world record in the first round early on Tuesday, Britain setting a time of 4:06.748 before Germany responded with 4:06.166.
Britain's celebrations for that record had been cut short when Katie Archibald crashed into Neah Evans after the finish, and it was unclear if either rider was affected in the final as the team set a much slower time.
Evans had replaced Elinor Barker in the line-up after qualifying.
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!"
Team-mate 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."
