Jason Kenny became Britain’s most decorated Olympian after winning silver in the men’s team sprint at the Tokyo Games.

The GB squad – Kenny joined by Ryan Owens and Jack Carlin – came second to favourites the Netherlands at the Izu Velodrome, the Dutch setting a new Olympic record of 41.369 seconds.

Kenny lost contact with the other two riders heading into the final lap meaning it was a second silver, rather than a seventh gold for the Farnworth great.

On eight medals, it makes him the most decorated British Olympian of all time. Sir Bradley Wiggins has the same number of medals but Kenny’s six golds to his fellow cyclist’s five see him top the standings.

Kenny, who has further medal chances in the individual sprint and the Keirin, told the BBC post-race: “We poured our heart into the second ride to get to the final and then rolled the dice in the final.”

On his medal haul, he added: “It’s really special. It gets harder every time. You catch a bit of momentum and having do it again and again it does get harder.”

Jason’s wife Laura was part of the women’s team pursuit squad that took silver as a fine performance by Germany saw them take gold. The USA picked up the bronze.

She had won gold in every Olympic event she had entered prior to this race. But though the two teams had been closely matched in qualifying and in the first round, Germany utterly dominated Great Britain in the final, stopping the clock in four minutes 04.249 seconds, winning by more than six seconds.

"They took everyone by surprise,” Laura told the BBC. “We knew they were going to go fast but maybe not that fast."