Queally unable to repeat gold

All a blur: Queally's life has been turned upside down

Britain's cycling gold medallist Jason Queally has failed in his bid to repeat his Olympic success on home ground.

But after day one of the World Track Championships in Manchester the GB team pursuit squad are on course to improve on their bronze from the Olympics.

Queally, one kilometre gold medallist in Sydney, had to make do with bronze around his home velodrome.

  Medallists

1. Arnaud Tournant (Fra) 1:01.619

2. Soren Lausberg (Ger) 1:01.744

3. Jason Queally (Gbr) 1:02.449

He was beaten by French world record holder Arnaud Tournant and by Germany's Soren Lausberg, who came second.

The top pair dramatically improved their performances from Sydney when the German was fourth and Tournant a disapppointing fifth.

Queally's time of was over a second slower than his Sydney effort.

Tournant improved by a second-and-a-half to win the title for the third time, although his winning mark was not as quick as Queally's triumphant ride in Australia.

Lausberg also produced a dramatic improvement of over a second to take the silver medal.

I've had great fun over the last month and I wouldn't change it for a 10th of a second

  Jason Queally

Queally finished fifth at this event in Berlin 12 months ago and after his life-changing past six weeks was happy with his first medal at the world's.

"I didn't feel the pressure," he insisted. "The Olympics was the big thing and we have come here from the Olympics and found it hard.

Pursuiters continue rapid progress

After the quarter-finals of the team pursuit, Britain's Olympic bronze medal-winning team are on target to at least repeat their own Olympian efforts.

The Germans, who took gold in Sydney, were fastest in the quarter-finals as they caught Spain in a fraction over four minutes and two seconds.

Second-fastest Britain were less than a second slower as they beat the Czech Republic to set up a semi-final with France on Thursday.

  Four fastest quarter-finals

1. Germany bt Spain in 4:02.059

2. GB bt Czech Republic in 4:02.915

3. France bt Poland in 4:05.634

4. Russia bt Netherlands in 4:08.103

The French beat Poland in their quarter-final in Manchester but were defeated by the British for the bronze medal in Sydney and were three seconds slower here.

The six-man GB squad will be confident of repeating that success to set up what is likely to be a final showdown with the Germans, whoever gets the nod to ride in the semi.

In the opening round on Wednesday morning Paul Manning, Chris Newton, Bryan Steel and Bradley Wiggins set the fastest qualifying time.

  Semi-final line up

GB v France

Germany v Russia

The evening session's quarter-final saw Jonny Clay replace Steel. The sixth member of the squad is Rob Hayles, who finished fourth in the individual pursuit in Sydney.

Germany have been weakened by the loss of individual Olympic champion Robert Bartko to injury.

But they remain strong favourites to beat Russia in the semi-finals. The Russians' victory over the Dutch in the last eight was six seconds slower than the Germans' time.

Madison

The final event of the evening was the madison - the paired race around 240 laps of the 250m track.

Germany won the gold medal, followed by Spain and Argentina.

Britain's team of Hayles and Wiggins, who finished fourth in Sydney, were not entered due to a clash with the team pursuit.