Hoy leads British charge into sprint quarter finals

By Steven Chicken, Sportsbeat, in Manchester

SIR Chris Hoy led a dominant British performance in men's sprint qualifying at the UCI World Cup in Manchester.


 SPRINT KING: Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy is in lightning fast form in Manchester

The triple Olympic champion led the qualifiers for the last 16 with a stadium record of 9.869 seconds before sealing his place in the quarter finals with a comfortable victory over Ukraine's Andrii Vynokurov.

Olympic sprint silver medallist Jason Kenny also made smooth progress against Scott Sunderland while Beijing keirin silver medallist Ross Edgar came from behind to edge out Germany's Tobias Wachter.

Matt Crampton ensured half of the quarter finallists would be British by defeating French rider Francois Pervis but the chance of two all-British semi-finals is over after Crampton and Edgar's times ensured they would face each other in the last eight.

Meanwhile, in the women's team sprint Great Britain's Jess Varnish and Rebecca James will ride for the bronze medal after finishing fourth in qualifying.

The young British duo, who have both qualified for this evening's B final in the individual sprint, clocked a time of 34.192 in Manchester and will face the German pair of Dana Gloss and Miriam Welte.

Australia's world champions Kaarle McCulloch and Anna Meares were the fastest qualifiers and will face Dutch duo Yvonne Hijgenaar and Willy Kanis in the gold medal race.