Kenny scrapes into final

Jason Kenny received a reprieve to advance to the men's Keirin final on day three of the Track Cycling World Championships in Minsk.

The 24-year-old from Bolton was seeking to win the title Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy claimed in Melbourne in 2012 and finished fourth in his semi-final following a photo finish, with only three progressing.

However, France's Francois Pervis was relegated by officials for impeding a rider on the inside and the Briton progressed as the third-placed rider behind Australian duo Andrew Taylor and Scott Sunderland.

Pervis will now ride for a minor placing in the race for seventh to 12th.

Maximilian Levy of Germany, Holland's Matthijs Buchli and Greece's Christos Volikakis advanced from the first semi-final heat.

In the women's sprint, Becky James advanced to Saturday's semi-finals with apparent ease, winning her best-of-three quarter-final with Australia's Kaarle McCulloch 2-0.

The 21-year-old from Abergavenny is in the form of her life, won team sprint and 500m time-trial bronze medals on the opening two days of competition and was the fastest qualifier earlier this afternoon.

She accelerated by McCulloch in the first bout to win comfortably and in the second held off the Australian to claim a 2-0 win.

The last-four of the sprint takes place on Saturday, with James drawn against China's Guo Shuang in the best-of-three semi-final.

Guo beat Virginie Cueff of France 2-0 in their last-eight tie.

Kristina Vogel of Germany and Hong Kong's Lee Wai Sze, the 500m time-trial champion, meet in the second semi-final.

The first World Championships on the road to the Rio de Janeiro Olympics of 2016 are taking place without the now retired Victoria Pendleton and Australia's Anna Meares, the Olympic champion, who is taking a sabbatical.

James is Britain's heir apparent to Pendleton, who won six world sprint titles - in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2012 - and is on course for her third medal of the competition.

Three times Pendleton won three medals, most recently in 2009, but never did she win four.

Should James succeed on Saturday, she will go for a fourth on Sunday in the Keirin.

"It's been a really good day," James said. "With sprint I take it step by step because they can be such long days and so many races so I was really happy with my qualifying, especially qualifying first in 10.9 (seconds).

"Once that's done you've just got to put it behind you and then focus on the racing because you could be the fastest qualifier but you might not race as well.

"I've just completely forgotten what position I qualified in and just focused on each race as it came and I'm through to the semi-finals now."

In the non-Olympic women's scratch race Ireland's Caroline Ryan was seeking to claim her second World Championships medal - after points race bronze in 2012 - and follow Martyn Irvine's successes on day two. Her team-mate won men's scratch gold and individual pursuit silver.

Ryan initiated the break 12 laps out in the 40-lap (10-kilometre) event and had two accomplices, but defending champion Katarzyna Pawlowska of Poland overtook her and claimed the victory, with Mexico's Sofia Arreola Navarro second.

Ryan was floundering as the line approached and she was overtaken by the pack as Russia's Evgeniya Romanyuta claimed bronze.

The Irishwoman finished seventh, one place behind Britain's Dani King, the triple team pursuit world champion.