Callum Skinner helps GB to gold

The 23-year-old had sat out Friday’s qualifying ride in the team sprint. His place was taken by Matt Crampton, who linked up with Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny to clock 43.798 seconds and set up a gold medal ride off against Poland.

Skinner, who is vying to make the trip to the Olympics Rio as man three – the spot occupied by Sir Chris Hoy in London four years ago – stepped in for the final.

The Britons went faster second time out stopping the clock at 43.751 seconds – 0.051 seconds quicker than their opponents – to clinch gold. Importantly for Skinner, his contribution was quicker than Crampton had managed.

The Scot was back in the saddle for the individual event yesterday. After finishing ninth quickest in qualifying with a time of 10.071 seconds, he saw off New Zealander Matthew Archibald in the first round then progressed to the quarter-finals with a win over Quentin Lafargue of France.

However, he bowed out of the competition at the hands of team-mate Kenny, who progressed 2-0 in the best-of-three tie.

That left Skinner to contest the ride off for fifth to eighth places. There he crossed the line in second spot behind Kamil Kuczynski of Poland, leaving him sixth overall.

Kenny lost to eventual winner Patrick Constable of Australia in the semi-final before beating Francois Pervis of France in the bronze medal decider.

Meanwhile, road specialist Mark Cavendish finished fourth in the men’s omnium. However, gold for Laura Trott in the women’s omnium, combined with Kenny’s bronze, gave Great Britain top spot overall in the three leg World Cup series.