Olympic Games: Kenny and Skinner to fight for sprint gold

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Great Britain are guaranteed another gold and silver medal in the Olympic velodrome on Sunday after both http://www.cyclingnews.com/riders/jason-kenny/ and Callum Skinner reached the final of the men’s sprint in Rio.

Great Britain won gold in the women’s team pursuit and a silver in the women’s keirin on Saturday after Kenny and Skinner were part of the gold-medal-winning team sprint trio on Friday and Bradley Wiggins lead the men’s quartet to gold in the team pursuit.

If Kenny wins gold in the sprint, he will join Bradley Wiggins and Steve Redgrave as Britain's only five-time Olympic champions, while success for Skinner will confirm his huge sprinting talent at the age of just 23. Kenny won gold in the team sprint in Beijing in 2008 and in the sprint and team sprint events in London in 2012.

Skinner and Callum are sharing a room at the athletes’ village in Rio. However, when they line-up on the track they will change from friends and teammates to rivals for a gold medal.

The final will be a best of three, with the first heat taking place at 5pm local time in Rio.

Kenny and Skinner dominated the earlier sprinting rounds after setting impressive times in qualification. Skinner is unbeaten in Rio after seeing off Australia's Patrick Constable in the last 16, China Xu Chao in the quarter-finals and Australia's Matthew Glaetzer 2-0 in the best-of-three semi-final. Kenny reached the last four unbeaten but then needing to come from 1-0 down to beat Russia's Denis Dmitriev 2-1.

After losing their semi-finals, Glaetzer and Dmitriev will ride for the bronze medal.

Sunday’s track racing schedule also includes the women’s sprint qualification and first round sprints and the open three events in the men’s Omnium: the 15km scratch race, the four kilometre individual pursuit and the elimination race.