BOLTON cycling world champion Jason Kenny is set for a showdown with team-mate and arch-rival Sir Chris Hoy over who claims the solitary individual sprint slot for Great Britain in the Olympic Games.

The 23-year-old will go up against Hoy at the Games test event – the London Track World Cup meeting which starts on Thursday and concludes with the sprint finals on Sunday in front of a sellout crowd.

It will be the first opportunity for the 23-year-old to get a feel for the new Games track at Stratford where he will be aiming to repeat his recent semi-final win over Hoy in the match sprint at the Manchester Velodrome before he went on to win the event, beating Matt Crampton 2-0 in the final.

A second-place finish behind Hoy in the keirin before victory over France in the team sprint alongside both Crampton and Hoy also followed.

Three of Hoy’s titles were earned in Beijing four years ago, one in the team sprint after Kenny’s late addition to the three-man squad, but a second came in the individual sprint where the Scott edged the gold ahead of the Boltonian.

In London, new rules allow only one entry for the individual sprint from each country, meaning if Kenny is picked, Hoy will miss out on defending his Olympic title.

Kenny, meanwhile, was promoted to world champion earlier this year after the man who beat him, France’s Gregory Bauge, was stripped of his 2011 titles following a doping offence.

But Kenny shrugged off any suggestion that he is in a better position than Hoy.

“It’s bizarre, but it doesn’t really change much,” he said.

“We’re so far into our preparations for this year’s worlds now and everyone is focused on looking forward. It’s kind of what’s done is done.”

Hoy and Kenny make an interesting pair. The Scot is among the country’s highest profile sportsmen while Kenny is arguably Britain’s lowest profile world and Olympic champion.

At the recent Revolution track meeting, the press waited in a gaggle for Hoy to address them at the end of the evening while Kenny went about his work mostly untroubled by the media, but that suits the younger man.

“It’s good for me because he soaks up all the media attention and he copes with it really well, better than anyone,” said Kenny. “It means we can keep our heads down.”

Keeping his head down might be increasingly difficult for Kenny. He has the double pressure of trying to beat Hoy and, if he succeeds, making sure the Olympic title stays in British hands.

“The good thing about training with Chris is you’re training against someone who is consistenly one of the very best in the world,” said Kenny.

“On any day of the week, he’d proably be top five, if not top three against anyone.”