No need to panic after Worlds gold drought - Laura Trott

Great Britain endured their worst medal haul in the World Championships since 2001.

Laura Trott says there is no need to panic after the British track cycling team failed to win a gold medal at last week's World Championships in Paris.

The double Olympic and five-time World champion was in the once dominant team pursuit quartet thrashed by Australia.

"We were a bit gutted about the team pursuit," said Trott, who was Britain's best performer with two silver medals.

"But it takes four girls going well and unfortunately for us we didn't quite have that on the day," she added.

The British team of Kate Archibald, Elinor Barker, Joanna Rowsell and Trott actually beat their own world record in the final, but still finished almost three seconds behind the Australians, with the normally rock-solid Rowsell looking well below par.

This defeat was only the second for a British team since the event was added to the Olympic programme, and followed four straight victories at the World Championships.

But rare defeats were the norm for Great Britain at the Velodrome National as the team went winless for the first Track World Championships since 2001, a dismal return for new technical director Shane Sutton with next year's Olympics in Rio now just 17 months away.

The veteran coach only stepped up to the top job last April when the hugely successful Sir Dave Brailsford stood down to concentrate on Team Sky, the men's road cycling outfit.

But Trott, who was speaking at the launch of her new road cycling team Matrix Pro Cycling, believes the 57-year-old Australian deserves more time to bring the track squad through a transitional period.

"I think what Shane has done has been really good," she said.

"He's changed the structure a bit and we're just waiting to see the results - the changes haven't been there very long.

"Once everything is in place we'll all move forward again as one big team."

One of those changes is bringing back Paul Manning as women's team pursuit coach, a move that Trott said she was delighted with.

She was also much happier with her silver medal in the omnium, the six-discipline event that tests every facet of a track rider's ability.

"I threw it away in the first event - I came 13th in the scratch race," said Trott, who has moved to the Midlands-based Matrix from former team Wiggle-Honda so she can better combine her road and track cycling ambitions.

"I thought I had no chance of a medal after that so I was really pleased to get a silver. The omnium is always a bit of a gamble."

It is a gamble that Trott has now narrowly lost at three straight World Championships, having won the event at the 2012 Worlds and Olympics, but she is not overly concerned about those setbacks.

Trott (left) finished behind Australia's Annette Edmondson and ahead of Dutch rider Kirsten Wild to earn a third successive world omnium silver

"I look back to the 2011 Worlds in Apeldoorn and we only won one gold medal there, the team pursuit," she explained, momentarily forgetting that her fiance Jason Kenny also won gold in the sprint.

"So I still believe that come Rio we'll be able to do it.

"I said back in 2010 that I didn't care if I never win a gold medal again until the Olympics, and I'll say it again now."