Chris Hoy makes shock early exit from European Championship sprint

After Great Britain's four medals in all four events on the opening evening of the European Championships here, today was an abrupt awakening, as Sir Chris Hoy made a shockingly early exit from the match sprint. The triple Olympic champion qualified fastest but made an elementary error in the first round against the 18-year-old Irishman Felix English, who is not even a full‑time sprinter, doubling up with road racing in the summer. Hoy attacked relatively early, opened a massive gap, then eased up, seemingly forgetting about his opponent, who kept rolling and squeezed past. "He looked so far back I thought he had given up," said Hoy. "The first I knew he was there was in the home straight when I saw him coming up, and there was nothing I could do. It was something stupid that I hope never happens again." English, meanwhile, was left celebrating a rare scalp. With Hoy on his way home – he was not entered for today's keirin – the Olympic silver medalist Jason Kenny rose to the occasion after qualifying sixth. In the semi-final he went down narrowly in both rides to the French national champion Kevin Sireau, then was awarded the bronze medal after the disqualification of the other losing semi-finallist, Poland's Damian Zielinski. After the opening three rounds of the men and women's omniums, both Ed Clancy and Laura Trott remain in the medal hunt for tomorrow's time trial, pursuit and scratch, which should favour the world champion Clancy. Kenny will have another medal chance today in the keirin, where Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish race in the women's event. There had been doubts about how the race referees would manage the new event on the omnium schedule, the elimination race or "devil take the hindmost", in which the last rider is pulled out every other lap, but the racing proved spectacular, brutally fast, and called for daredevil close-quarters bikehandling skills as the riders attempted to push their way through scarily small gaps.