Laura Kenny returns to action to help Britain qualify in world team pursuit

Laura Kenny helped Great Britain qualify second fastest in the women’s team pursuit at the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in her first competitive outing since giving birth six months ago.

Katie Archibald, Elinor Barker, Emily Nelson and Kenny set a time of four minutes 19.177 seconds, behind only defending champions the United States who posted the best time of 4mins 18.836secs.

Four-time Olympic champion Kenny, 25, has made her return to competition much faster than expected following the birth of baby Albie, who has travelled to Apeldoorn along with husband Jason. The six-time Olympic champion is due to ride in the first round of the men’s team sprint later on Wednesday.

Although they were second to the Americans, Britain were comfortably ahead of third-placed Italy, who were a further 2.366s back.

New Zealand, with three of the four riders who took bronze in Hong Kong 12 months ago, finished fourth, almost another two seconds behind Italy.

The British quartet had been running ahead of the Americans on the time splits up to the 3000 metre mark but fell behind on the last kilometre, with Kenny sitting up for the final lap after one last pull.

Great Britain endurance coach Paul Manning said seven-time world champion Kenny could take confidence from her return to action.

“I wouldn’t say she felt good (when she got off the bike) but reassured and happy,” he said.

“It’s an impressive team performance at that level. That team hasn’t spent much time together. For Laura, expectations are modified for the minute but they won’t be for that long.”

With Kenny still finding her racing legs and Archibald tackling a busy schedule – including the scratch race later on Wednesday – Manning said the riders would be assessed on Thursday morning ahead of the first round and finals, with Ellie Dickinson ready to step in if needed.

“We’ve got Ellie who’s right there as a capable reserve so I’m not quite sure if we’ll substitute someone as it’s quite a tight turnaround,” he said. “We’ll see how people sleep and how their health is.”

Kenny did not speak to reporters after the race, but wrote on Twitter: “Felt like I was back at my first worlds all over again today.. nervous/excited and everything else in between. 2nd fastest for us. 2 more to go Absolutely loved being back!!”

Britain’s men’s team pursuit squad of Ed Clancy, Kian Emadi, Ethan Hayter and Charlie Tanfield qualified fastest in their event with a time of 3:55.714.

They had been two seconds down on Denmark’s time at the midpoint but came back strongly to finish 0.692s ahead of Italy in second and 1.026s ahead of Denmark in third, even though Emadi had sat up with 1,000m still to go.

Tanfield is in the GB squad along with fellow Team KGF rider Dan Bigham – the first non-programme riders selected by Britain for a world championships since Kate Cullen in 2008.