Chris Hoy suffers shock first round sprint defeat in Poland

It was a day to forget in Pruszkow for Chris Hoy as he found himself bested by 18 year old Irishman Felix English in the first round. Hoy, who eased up after putting in a surge to build up a decent lead, misjudged the gap and as he cruised to the line English came over the top to take the win.

"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," Hoy told the Guardian. "It was something stupid that I hope never happens again". Hoy will take no further part in the championships as he's not competing in the keirin.

Hoy qualified fastest for the final rounds with a marker of 9.999 seconds, a full second faster than English. "When you are up against an opponent who is one second slower", said Hoy, "99 times out of a hundred you know it's going to be straightforward and you don't want to waste energy because there is a lot of racing to come and if you smoke it and win by 50m it looks disrespectful. I went from the front, put an 85% jump in, got a big gap then shut it down. He looked so far back I thought he had given up"

English, making up the numbers in the sprint as a warm-up to the omnium, was beaten in the next round by Denis Dmitriev of Russia, who went on to win the overall title with Kevin Sireau in silver. Jason Kenny took bronze after fellow losing semi-finalist Damian Zielinski was disqualified.

In the women's sprint the top gong went to Sandie Clair (FRA) from Kristina Vogel (GER) and Simona Krupeckaite (LIT). Team GB's Jess Varnish was sixth. Ed Clancy lies seventh in the men's omnium after three events, with Laura Trott currently eighth in the women's competition