British trio win men’s team sprint silver

Jack Carlin, Ed Lowe and Hamish Turnbull continued Great Britain’s medal-winning start at the Olympic velodrome with team sprint silver in Paris.

In a repeat of the Tokyo final three years ago, they were beaten by a supreme Netherlands trio, who set a world record of 40.949 seconds to retain their title.

With Carlin – now a three-time Olympic medallist – on the final lap, Britain crossed the finish line 0.865 seconds behind for a new national best.

It follows the historic women’s team sprint gold won by Emma Finucane, Sophie Capewell and Katy Marchant on Monday – the first day of action at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines velodrome.

“I’m ecstatic. A silver medal is something I didn’t think was possible going into this,” Lowe, 20, told BBC Sport.

“I’ll definitely take that.”

Turnbull, who like Lowe is making his Olympic debut, added: “I’m buzzing. We weren’t expecting to fight for gold, we were chasing the bronze.

“To get into that gold final, all stress was off and we could really enjoy it and show everyone what we could do without any pressure on our backs.”

Carlin, Turnbull and Lowe had come through qualifying on Monday with the second-fastest time.

In Tuesday’s first round, they beat Germany by more than half a second to guarantee themselves a medal.

But in an era of Dutch dominance, it was always going to be the men in orange – who have won five of the past six men’s team sprint World Championship titles – they faced in the final.

Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland broke their own Olympic record in qualifying, before back-to-back world records on their way to the top of the podium.

“I’m feeling really good,” said Carlin, 27. “As a team we came and delivered, it was the best we could have done on the day.

“They’re two boys that have come in without any experience really at this kind of level, they’ve really stepped up and I’m really proud of both of them.”

Britain have entered a new era of men’s sprinting after the retirement of seven-time Olympic champion Sir Jason Kenny after Tokyo.

Paris marks the first Games at which the men’s team sprint has been contested that the British team has not included Kenny or Sir Chris Hoy – himself a six-time Olympic gold medallist across the sprint events.

Kenny, who is now coach of the British men’s sprint squad, said: “I’m really happy. The performance was really good – it was flawless from start to finish. They got the reward they deserved.

“It’s rapid in here, so we’re all going fast. The Dutch are just in a league of their own at the minute, they have been for the last four years.

“I think we’ve improved over the three years since Tokyo, but we’re still nowhere near them and we need to keep pushing. In the next four years hopefully we can close that gap.”

Carlin and Turnbull, 25, will be back in action on Wednesday in the individual sprint qualifying, before the keirin gets under way on Saturday.

Another British medal is guaranteed in the velodrome on Wednesday, after Ethan Hayter, Ollie Wood, Charlie Tanfield – in for Dan Bigham – and Ethan Vernon beat Denmark in a rollercoaster of a race to reach the team pursuit final.

They will face Australia, who set a huge new world record to beat defending champions Italy.

GB will be looking to regain the Olympic title lost in Tokyo, having dominated the event at the previous three Games.

Elinor Barker, Josie Knight, Anna Morris and Jess Roberts qualified third-fastest for the next round of the women’s team pursuit in a new national record of four minutes 6.710 seconds. They will take on the United States for a place in the gold-medal race.