Kenny, 23, had reached the final with a 2-0 semi-final victory over Hoy but he could not defeat France's defending champion, Gregory Bauge.

"It's a shame to finish on a loss but I'm really pleased with a silver medal," Kenny said.

Sir Chris salvaged some pride with a bronze medal, defeating France's Mickael Bourgain 2-1 and bringing Britain's haul to six medals at the penultimate World Championships before London 2012.

Britain now have one gold, two silvers and three bronze medals from three days of competition, with two days remaining.

While Kenny was delighted that he made the final, he admitted that Sir Chris had already pushed him to the limit.

"Riding against Chris really took it out of me with two really, really hard rides," said Kenny.

"Bauge had too much pace at the end of the day and I didn't seem to have an answer for it.

"Chris and I train together, we started doing a lot of efforts together in training so it all feels very familiar when we're racing."


Only one Olympic sprint place is allocated to each country and, although Kenny will draw confidence from his win over Sir Chris, he is not about to get carried away.

"Selection as usual will be done at the last second to ensure we get the best team," said Kenny.

"At the minute there are four or five us realistically in the mix and it could be any one of us. I'm concentrating on being fastest for now and picking up any results I can on the way."

In the women's competition, Britain's Victoria Pendleton progressed to the best-of-three semi-finals, but her team-mates Becky James and Jessica Varnish were eliminated in the second-round repechage.

Pendleton is seeking a fifth consecutive world title in the event and a sixth in seven years.

Tomorrow 18-year-old Laura Trott, a gold medallist in last night's team pursuit, starts the first half of her six-event task in the omnium, which she was called into as a late replacement for the injured Liz Armistead.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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