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Laura Trott 'annoyed and frustrated' by accusations against Team GB Rio 2016 cycling squad

Trott and her British teammates have faced veiled allegations of foul play after dominating the velodrome at the Olympics

Wednesday 24 August 2016 11:04 BST
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Laura Trott, alongside Jason Kenny, admits she is 'annoyed and frustrated' by allegations against Team GB's cyclists
Laura Trott, alongside Jason Kenny, admits she is 'annoyed and frustrated' by allegations against Team GB's cyclists (Getty)

Olympic champion Laura Trott has revealed she is annoyed and frustrated by Great Britain's cycling rivals calling into question their all-conquering record at the Rio Games.

Trott claimed two golds to become Britain's most successful female Olympian, while her fiancé Jason Kenny triumphed on three occasions in Brazil to take his gold-medal tally to six following successes at the Beijing and London Games.

But after winning fewer medals at the world championships in London in March - the last major track cycling event before this summer's Games - and only three silver medals at the world championships in Paris in 2015, Great Britain faced veiled accusations of foul play from their competitors.

But responding to the comments, Trott, 24, told BBC Radio 5 Live: "I'm not angry as such, but it is a little bit annoying and frustrating because it is a lot of hard work that has gone into that performance.

"British Cycling has always been very much an Olympics-based programme, so for us it wasn't about clearing up at the world championships. Don't get me wrong, it would have been nice because they were in London, but it's always been around the Olympics.

"That's what our funding is pushed towards, that's where they spend our UK Sport money. If we'd come away and under-performed at the Olympics, we'd have been gutted if we'd cleaned up at London because it would have meant we'd have peaked at the wrong time.

"I think what a lot of other nations don't know, and what they don't see, is the fact that it doesn't really matter about the world championships. It's all about the Olympics."

Andy Murray meanwhile was credited with inspiring Team GB's greatest overseas Olympic Games as a squad of triumphant athletes arrived home on a gold-nosed Boeing 747 on Tuesday.

Flying home on a chartered British Airways flight the team were shown singing "God Save The Queen" with BA providing 77 extra bottles of champagne on a special plane, emblazoned with 'victoRIOus'.

Although Trott, Kenny and Murray were absent - having departed Rio before the conclusion of the Games - Team GB chef de mission Mark England was full of praise for the Wimbledon champion revealing how a rousing speech on the eve of the Games had spurred the team to go on to claim 67 medals - two more than they managed in London in 2012.

"Andy was the flag-bearer and spoke to all of the team before the opening ceremony," England said. "He spoke really eloquently about being part of Team GB and the importance of everybody doing everything they could to replicate London."

PA

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