Pendleton and Reade take silver in team sprint

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Victoria Pendleton?s and Shanaze Reade?s short but very successful run in the women?s team sprint came to an end tonight as they were beaten to the world title for the first time in the events history.

Having won the title in 2007 and 2008 they had to make do with silver in Poland as GB?s wait for their first gold medal was stretched out a little longer.

"To beat the Australian team we needed an extra tenth of a second compared with the qualifying round, and we had that," Pendleton said afterwards. The only problem was they found another tenth too."

Pendleton still has two golds to go for this week, but she's not going to walk away with the titles as she has done in the last two years. "[I'm] obviously disappointed, but at the end of the day Oz did better and that?s what sport's about."

It was a fifth medal for the British team, and a closer look at the times suggests Pendleton will face a tough challenge from Simona Krupeckaite in the individual sprint competition tomorrow.

Pendleton posted a second lap of 14.185 seconds, a quarter of a second faster than Anna Meares, but the same margin down on Krupeckaite who took bronze with Gintare Gaivenyte. The Lithuanian was no match for Pendleton in the Olympics last year, but she seems to be in much better form here having already broken the world record in the 500m time trial.

Qualifying for the women's sprint starts tomorrow as Pendleton looks to make it three world titles in a row. To do this she'll be as reliant on her tactics as she will be on her famous leg speed.

Results: Women's team sprint

1. Australia 33.149

2. Great Britain 33.380

3. Lithuania 33.495

4. France 33.638

Qualifying

1. Australia (Kaarle McCulloch, Anna Meares) 33.452

2. Great Britain (Shanaze Reade, Victoria Pendleton) 33.598

3. France (Sandie Clair, Clara Sanchez) 33.609

4. Lithuania (Gintare Gaivenyte, Simon Krupeckaite) 33.617

5. Netherlands (Yvonne Hijgenaar, Willy Kanis) 33.791

6. Germany (Kristina Vogel, Miriam Welte) 33.922

7. China (Jinjie Gong, Lulu Zheng) 34.475

8. Russia (Swetlana Grankovskaya, Olga Streltsova) 34.733

9. Poland (Renata Dabrowska, Aleksandra Drejgier) 35.095

10. Honk Kong (Wai see Lee, Zhao Juan Meng) 36.418

2009 UCI TRACK CYCLING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

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RACE REPORTS

The CW Hub: Track World Championships index

Women's team pursuit: Britain clinch gold

women's team sprint: Reade and Pendleton score silver

Men's scratch race: Cavendish marked out of contention

Men's individual pursuit: Phinney wins gold

Men's team sprint: France beat Britain

Men's Points Race: Newton gets bronze

Women's individual pursuit: Houvenaghel beaten to silver

500m TT: World record for Krupeckaite, bronze for Pendleton

NEWS AND FEATURES

Track worlds day one: steady start for team GB

Why there's no Brit in the individual pursuit

No individual pursuit for Britain at track worlds

No room for complacency in British Cycling: Iain Dyer interviewCavendish in the frame for Scratch race world title bid

2009 Track Cycling World Championships preview

Crampton set to fill Sir Chris Hoy's team sprint spot

2009 World Track Champs GB squad named

Hoy to miss world track champs

Track World Championships: British medal winners

CW's Dummies' Guide to Track Racing

PHOTOS

Day two: Track Worlds 2009

Day one: Track Worlds 2009

GB RIDER PROFILES

Men

Jonathan Bellis

Steven Burke

Mark Cavendish

Ed Clancy

Matt Crampton

David Daniell

Ross Edgar

Jason Kenny

Chris Newton

Jamie Staff

Women

Lizzie Armitstead

Wendy Houvenaghel

Victoria Pendleton

Shanaze Reade

Joanna Rowsell

Jessica Varnish

RECENT RESULTS

International track results last season: 2007-2008

International track results this season: 2008-2009

2008 TRACK WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS LINKS

Full results from the 2008 track worlds

Report: Sunday, day five>>

Report: Saturday, day four>>

Report: Friday, day three>>

Report: Thursday, day two>>

Report: Wednesday, day one>>

EXTERNAL LINKS

Track Cycling World Championships 2009 official website

Union Cycliste Internationale