Cycling: UK riders on track for handsome payback

A third Olympic medal fell to Britain at the Dunc Gray velodrome on Monday and for British cycling it's almost as good as winning the national lottery which helps fund the sport.

After being dismissed so often as the cheerful also-rans, they are now he talk of the Olympic track after nearly $10 million) was pumped into a specialised training and coaching plan to lift their world performance level.

Yvonne McGregor, who defeated New Zealand's Sarah Ulmer on Monday night to win the bronze medal in the 3000m pursuit, said: ``The plan started three years ago, and Sydney was the first major event where we were giving ourselves expectations to perform. At the next Olympics we will do even better.''

Her medal joined the gold and silvers from Jason Queally, Craig MacLean and Chris Hoy, and there could be more.

As the track programme heads into its fourth day a British quartet are poised for another medal fight.

After topping the qualifiers with an Olympic record in the 4000m team pursuit, Bryan Steel, Paul Manning, Bradley Wiggins and Chris Newton then caught their quarter-final opponents, Russia, before the full distance.

They now take on Ukraine to settle who battles for which medals.

The Britons' Olympic record was short-lived as Germany clocked faster to oust Australia, and now face France who they beat in the world championship last year in Berlin.

Craig MacLean kept British hopes alive in the sprint where their last Olympic medal was a silver from Reg Harris in 1948, but he had to overcome a relegation and win two second-chance rides to earn the opportunity to challenge former world champion Marty Nothstein of the US in the quarter-finals.

``Ninety percent of our funding is from the national lottery,'' Peter Keen the man behind the World Class Performance programme, said.

``Three million pounds have been spent since the programme began and with the publicity we have gained at these Games I think it has been pretty good value for money.

``Fourth has been our worst performance so far and it has taken a lot of hard work by many to bring us to this standard.''