Three-time Olympic champion Jason Kenny is targeting improved showings at the Track Cycling World Championships, beginning in Minsk this week in the first global event since the London 2012 Olympics.
The 24-year-old from Bolton has just one world title to his name and that was by default, when Gregory Bauge was stripped of the 2011 men’s sprint title for an anti-doping violation.
Kenny wore the world champion’s rainbow jersey once, at the 2012 London Track World Cup, after a low-key presentation in the bowels of the Olympic Velodrome where six months later he won sprint and team sprint gold.
He said: “That was a bit of a rubbish way to win the worlds in 2011. If I was to win it again in the future I’d want to win it properly on the day.
“I’ll be doing everything I can to put myself in the best place possible. I really want to win.”
Kenny will bid to claim the sprint title on the bike on Sunday’s final day of competition, with his focus first on Thursday’s team sprint and Friday’s Keirin.
With Sir Chris Hoy missing the championships as he deliberates over his future and Ed Clancy back in the team pursuit squad following a flirtation with the shorter distance, the Bolton rider is the senior figure in the team sprint squad.
He is to be joined in the three-man, three-lap team sprint event by fellow Olympic champion Philip Hindes and Kian Emadi or Matt Crampton.