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Olympic track day four: Clancy wins omnium bronze

Ed Clancy added omnium bronze to his team pursuit gold medal after finishing the six-discipline event with a storming one kilometre time trial.

Clancy, omnium world champion in 2010, went into the final event in fifth overall and clocked 1:00.981 to rise to third and win his second medal of the Games after romping to team pursuit victory with Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh on Friday.

Lasse Hansen of Denmark claimed gold with 27 points, while France’s Bryan Coquare took bronze with 29 and Clancy finished third on 30.

Clancy opened the omnium competition with victory in the flying lap before finishing 11th in the points race and fifth in the elimination race to lie fourth after the first day.

The 27-year-old, who rides for Rapha-Condor-Sharp on the road, moved up to second overall with second place in the four kilometre individual pursuit but dropped to fifth after finishing a disappointing tenth in the 15km scratch race.

But Clancy, who was also part of Great Britain’s team pursuit winning quartet at the Beijing Games in 2008, redeemed himself in the final event with a time which would have earned him bronze in the one kilometre time trial when it was last an individual event at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

Sir Chris Hoy claimed his first gold medal on that occasion and, with it rumoured that the discipline could return at Rio 2016, Clancy could emerge as a genuine medal contender in four years time.

“In the bunch races I got torn apart by the specialists. I always knew it would be touch and go to get a medal,” said Clancy.

“It’s an emotional roller-coaster out there, one minute you are winning the next you are completely out of the race. That was the story of the last two days.”

Meanwhile, Victoria Pendleton, who already has one London 2012 gold medal to her name after winning the keirin, set a new Olympic record in the flying 200m to qualify fastest in the women’s individual sprint.

Pendleton’s time of 10.724 seconds was eight hundredths of a seconds faster than her fierce rival, Anna Meares of Australia, nine-time sprint world champion Pendleton’s main rival for gold in London. China’s Shuang Guo clocked the third fastest time.

Pendleton then dispatched of her first round opponent, Ekaterina Gnidenko of Russia, before showing a fierce turn of speed to beat Holland’s Willy Kanis and progress to Monday’s quarter-finals.

Finally, Jason Kenny progressed to the last four of the men’s individual sprint with ease, defeating Malaysia’s Azizulhasni Awang 2-0 in the quarter finals.

Kenny won silver behind Hoy in the individual sprint in Beijing but, with each nation only able to select one rider per event in London, the 24-year-old was selected ahead of the five-time Olympic gold medallist.

And Kenny looks to be in fine form, setting a new Olympic record in qualifying before defeating Awang, and the Brit will now face Trinidad & Tobago’s Philip Nisjane in the semi-final.

Kenny is expected to win that contest and will likely face Gregory Baugé of France if he progresses to the final on Monday evening. Baugé beat Kenny 2-0 in the final on the way to his third world title in Melbourne earlier this year.

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