JASON Kenny claimed the scalp of four-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy at the UCI Track World Cup in Manchester last night.

But the Farnworth star could still only finish with a silver medal at the Eastlands Velodrome.

Kenny’s 2-0 win over the shellshocked Scot set up a best of three final with Frenchman, Kevin Sireau.

However, Sireau was the class act of the competition and was a deserved winner of the gold medal.

But Kenny gave a sell-out 4,000 home crowd plenty to cheer as he beat the favourite in the opening race.

However, Sireau showed his class to win the last two races.

Kenny, who will ride the individual sprint and Japanese keirin, will draw immense confidence though from his semi-final whitewash of flying Scot Hoy.

It was belated revenge for their head-to-head in the 2008 Olympic Games final.

And with only one rider per country allowed for the event at London 2012, Kenny has staked an early claim for that place.

If there was any lingering jet-lag from their recent training camp in Australia, it was Hoy, 34, who looked the more lethargic.

Kenny and Hoy were on a collision course to meet after the opening qualification sprint.

Turbo-charged Sireau was the only man to break 10 seconds to qualify fastest.

But fractions separated Hoy (10.046 secs) and Kenny (10.049).

Kenny then defeated Germany’s Robert Forstermann and China’s Zhang Lei, both 2-0, to earn his latest crack at Salford-based Hoy.

British cyclists finished the opening night with four medals, including a team pursuit gold for Mancunian Sarah Storey, Wendy Houvenaghel and Jo Rowswell.