Finucane wins keirin silver after sprint disappointment

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Great Britain's Emma Finucane bounced back from sprint disappointment to win keirin silver at the Track Cycling World Championships in Chile.

Finucane, 22, reached the quarter-finals in the sprint event on Friday but an error saw the two-time defending champion miss out on a spot in the semi-finals.

The three-time Olympic medallist put that frustration behind her to finish second behind Japan's Mina Sato in the keirin.

"I'm really proud," Finucane said.

"After the sprint, I was really gutted and it took me a while to process it, but I think bouncing back and doing four rides that I didn't think even six months ago that I was capable of doing, I've grown so much and we'll keep working on it.

"I can take a lot [from this World Championships]. They say the highs when you're winning things is sweet, but you can only feel that when you get the sour.

"It's year one of the cycle, I've so much more growing [to do]."

The keirin remains the only sprint event in which Finucane - who in 2024 became the first British woman since 1964 to win three medals at the same Olympics - is yet to claim a major gold.

Her silver was one of four for the British team on the final day of the Championships in Santiago.

Earlier in the day, Anna Morris picked up her third medal of the Championships with a perfectly-timed final sprint in the women's points race.

Morris added to her individual pursuit gold and bronze in the team pursuit.

"I'm really, really happy. I wasn't sure when it finished - I thought it was top five but my coach told me I was second," Morris said.

"It has been a solid week on the whole."

Meanwhile, Matt Richardson - who switched allegiance from Australia to Great Britain last year - also took home a silver medal on the final day after coming up short against long-time rival Harrie Lavreysen of the Netherlands in the men's sprint final.

Lavreysen won the first race by 0.094secs and was 0.050secs clear of Richardson in the second to seal his seventh consecutive world championship gold in the event.

In the men's madison, Mark Stewart and Josh Tarling placed second behind Belgian duo Lindsay de Vylder and Fabio van den Bossche, amassing 73 points - eight fewer than the champions - in the 200-lap race.

That took Great Britain's final medal haul to 14 - winning four gold, eight silver and two bronze - but they finished second to the Netherlands in the overall table.

Speaking to BBC Sport, GB sprint coach and seven-time Olympic champion Sir Jason Kenny said: "We've missed out on some medals that we felt we could have been competitive for, but we've come away with a really good haul with some new medallists, so it's really exciting.

"The fact that we were on the podium more than ever shows that we were competitive across the board, and it's really positive.

"Next year's World Championships will go towards Olympic qualification so things will start getting really serious, and I think given the age profile of the team - and the fact that we are so competitive in so many events - is a really good place to start the Olympic journey."

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