UCI Track Worlds: GB's Laura Trott goes into final day 2nd in the Omnium

Great Britain’s Laura Trott goes into the second and final day of the women’s Omnium at the UCI Track World Championships in Cali, Colombia, in second medal position, six points behind the USA’s Sarah Hammer, the defending champion.

The fourth and penultimate day of the championships was the only one so far on which Great Britain  failed to secure a medal, although Katie Archibald rode impressively to clinch fourth in the points race and Ed Clancy won two of the three events in the men's Omnium, finishing fifth.

Olympic champion Trott, aged 21, placed highly in all three events raced yesterday, securing third spot in both the flying lap and the points race ahead of what has become her signature event, the elimination race.

The race gave Trott an opportunity to close the gap on Hammer, nine years her senior, who came second in the flying lap to Australia’s Annette Edmondson and then won the points race.

With the pair among the four riders left on the track as evening’s final race headed towards its conclusion, however, Trott was unable to get past Hammer and was eliminated.

In a further blow to Trott’s hopes of regaining the world title she won in 2012, Hammer went on to win the event, and heads to the final three events on ten points, compared to the American’s ten.

What’s more, the first of those – the 3,000 metres individual pursuit – is Hammer’s strongest.

She is the current world record holder, is a five-time world champion, and earlier this week she finished runner-up to Great Britain’s Joanna Rowsell.

Meanwhile, both Jessica Varnish and Jason Kenny finished out of the medals in the individual sprint.

Varnish had eliminated her teammate and defending world champion Becky James in the quarter finals on Friday, but yesterday lost her semi-final 2-0 to China’s Zhong Tianshi.

That left Varnish racing for the bronze medal against another Chinese woman, Ling Jonhing, who won by the same margin to put the British rider in fourth place.

"It's disappointing not to be on the podium,” Varnish told the British Cycling website. “I thought it was going to be doable today but it just wasn't there for me."

The final was won 2-0 by Germany’s Kristina Vogel, who has won the rainbow jersey in the team sprint for three years in a row and now takes her first individual title in the event.

Jason Kenny, winner of the individual sprint at the 2012 Olympics and bronze medallist in last year’s world championship, failed to make it beyond the first day of competition yesterday, however.

In the quarter finals he was up against Francois Pervis, winner earlier this week of both the Keirin and the Kilo, and the Frenchman’s superb form continued as he went through 2-0.

Kenny, who won the final for fifth to eighth place, said: "It's fractions. Unfortunately we're at the wrong end of those fractions. We want to be fractions in front instead of fractions behind.

"The three-fifths tend to speak for themselves. I feel a little bit behind the top runners."

Today's semi-finals see Pervis take on the Russian, Denis Dmitriev, while Germany's Stefan Botticher races against Australia's Matthew Glaetzer.

In the men’s Omnium, which finished yesterday, Ed Clancy, winner on Friday of the flying lap, won the final two events, the scratch race and the Kilo.

Clancy, aged 28, had begun the second day in seventh place, but hopes of challenging for a medal took a blow as he finished 11th in the individual pursuit and those two subsequent wins only elevated him to fifth.

"With the form I had [fifth] is the best I could've hoped for," he said.

"The pursuit I was going nowhere. Points and scratch and elimination race weren't that bad. It's the pursuit where we lost ground here today.

"Back to the drawing board and we'll try to sort it out next year."

The event was won by Thomas Boudat of France.

Last night also saw the women’s points race, where Great Britain’s Katie Archibald, riding in her first world championships, was among the riders challenging for the medals.

Winning the second sprint, the 19-year-old Scot, who had won gold in Thursday’s team pursuit spent much of the race in fourth place, but was unable to gain the additional points that would have elevated her into the medals.

Australia’s Amy Cure clinched gold ahead of Germany’s Stephanie Pohl and Canada’s Jasmin Glaesser.

Coverage of the final session will start at 4pm UK time on BBC Two, the BBC Red Button and on the BBC Sport website.

Besides the conclusion of the Women’s Omnium and men’s individual sprint, there will also be the Women’s Keirin and men’s Madison.