Olympics track cycling: Great Britain win men’s team sprint silver

Carlin, Turnbull and Lowe had come through qualifying on Monday with the second-fastest time.

In Tuesday’s first round, they beat Germany by more than half a second to guarantee themselves a medal.

But in an era of Dutch dominance, it was always going to be the men in orange – who have won five of the past six men’s team sprint World Championship titles – they faced in the final.

Roy van den Berg, Harrie Lavreysen and Jeffrey Hoogland broke their own Olympic record in qualifying, before back-to-back world records on their way to the top of the podium.

“I’m feeling really good,” said Carlin, 27. “As a team we came and delivered, it was the best we could have done on the day.

“They’re two boys that have come in without any experience really at this kind of level, they’ve really stepped up and I’m really proud of both of them.”

Britain have entered a new era of men’s sprinting after the retirement of seven-time Olympic champion Sir Jason Kenny after Tokyo.

Paris marks the first Games at which the men’s team sprint has been contested that the British team has not included Kenny or Sir Chris Hoy – himself a six-time Olympic gold medallist across the sprint events.

Kenny, who is now coach of the British men’s sprint squad, said: “I’m really happy. The performance was really good – it was flawless from start to finish. They got the reward they deserved.

“It’s rapid in here, so we’re all going fast. The Dutch are just in a league of their own at the minute, they have been for the last four years.

“I think we’ve improved over the three years since Tokyo, but we’re still nowhere near them and we need to keep pushing. In the next four years hopefully we can close that gap.”

Carlin and Turnbull, 25, will be back in action on Wednesday in the individual sprint qualifying, before the keirin gets under way on Saturday.