Jack Carlin delivered on Jason Kenny’s tip as he delivered bronze for Great Britain in the men’s sprint.
The 24-year-old beat Denis Dmitriev 2-0 to win his first individual Olympic medal three days after winning silver in the team event alongside Kenny and Ryan Owens.
In doing so, Carlin secured Britain’s 10th cycling medal of the Tokyo Games.
Kenny, the two-time defending champion in this event, had conceded his own hopes of contending in this event were effectively over after the first day of competition on Wednesday, instead tipping Carlin to carry the challenge to the almighty Dutch.
And though Carlin could not force his way into the final, beaten 2-0 by world champion Harrie Lavreysen in the semis, he saw off Dmitriev of the Russian Olympic Committee with relative ease.
The two went wheel to wheel on the bank in the first, race but Carlin had the inside line and the power to win with relative ease.
He went long with his attack in the second, almost allowing Dmitriev to catch him but the 35-year-old former world champion no longer had the spark in his legs.
The two then watched on as Lavreysen – who beat both Carlin and Kenny in this competition – edged out fellow Dutchman Jeffrey Hoogland in their deciding race to take gold.
Earlier Katy Marchant comfortably advanced to the 1/8 finals of the women’s sprint – showing form that suggested no lasting effects from her crash in the keirin a day earlier.
“I wasn’t 100 per cent sure how I was feeling this morning,” said Marchant, who broke her own British record with a time of 10.495seconds in qualifying, eighth fastest.
“I was still a little bit battered and bruised after yesterday. But the legs are feeling good. It’s just riding through the rounds now and hopefully after another night’s sleep tonight I’ll feel even better tomorrow.”
