Great Britain select 19-year-old Philip Hindes for world championships

In a surprise move Great Britain are set to reshuffle their men's team sprint lineup yet again after the announcement that the German-born 19-year-old Philip Hindes will travel to the world championships in Melbourne in early April as a potential man one. Even if Hindes does not actually race in Australia, Great Britain are still keeping their options open by giving him exposure to the atmosphere of a major championship in the runup to the London Games. The rider who covered that position at the recent World Cup in London, Ross Edgar, did not make the team. Hindes was born in Krefeld, Germany, and represented Germany at the junior world championships in 2010 before joining the Great Britain sprint academy – he has a British father – at the age of 18. "He's managed 17.7sec for the standing lap, and did 17.8 at the Revolution meeting in January after an evening's racing," explained the Great Britain head coach, Shane Sutton. "Even if he only improves to a 17.6 that will move Sir Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny forwards." The team also have the option of using Kenny at man one, but it is not his preferred position. "Ross didn't come up with the goods in London," added Sutton. "He is gutted at missing out but still has a chance of slotting in at man two. However, taking him to Melbourne would set him back on that road." The performance director, Dave Brailsford, underlined that Edgar remained in contention, and will focus on road and gym training in the coming months. There remains the chance, Sutton believes, that Hindes can improve rapidly enough to emulate Kenny, who came from nowhere to win two medals in Beijing. The rest of the world championship team is unchanged from the squad that performed strongly at last week's London World Cup, winning gold medals in the men's keirin and sprint thanks to Hoy, and taking gold medals and world records in the women's team sprint and team pursuit.