WELSH cyclists Ciara Horne and Elinor Barker took silver as Great Britain won seven medals at the Hong Kong Track World Cup.

Langstone-based Horne and Cardiff star Barker helped Great Britain’s women win silver in the team pursuit on Saturday.

After qualifying fastest on Friday, Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell Shand, Horne and Barker produced a 4min 18sec ride to defeat China’s team pursuiters in the first round and book a place in the final against Canada.

Following her points race bronze a day earlier, 19-year-old Emily Nelson was swapped in for Trott but after a kilometre the British team were three-quarters of a second down, the gap going out to half a second at the halfway point.

Britain narrowed the margin as the contest concluded, stopping the clock on 4min 20.034sec, around a quarter of a second shy of Canada’s winning time.

Also on Saturday, Jess Varnish and Katy Marchant took a superb silver medal in the team sprint and Great Britain’s male team pursuiters took bronze.

Abergavenny’s Becky James had a disappointing weekend, exiting the individual sprint in the round of 16, beaten by Natasha Hansen of New Zealand after placing 18th in qualifying.

Trott was the star of the show with silver in the scratch race on Friday and gold in the omnium on Sunday.

Hong Kong also saw Great Britain secure overall victory in the 2015/16 UCI Track Cycling World Cup series, as the men’s team sprint trio of Jason Kenny, Philip Hindes and Callum Skinner struck gold.

Following the third and final track world cup of the series, Trott and her teammates will now turn their attentions to the UCI Track Cycling World Championships at London’s Lee Valley VeloPark between March 2 and 6 – a key milestone on the road to Rio 2016.

The Harlow-born 23 year-old, who memorably took team pursuit and omnium gold at London 2012, is delighted to be returning to the scene of her Olympic triumphs.

She said: “It was really pleasing to perform so well in Hong Kong, particularly with the level of competition out there. The whole team is progressing well ahead of Rio, and the London world championships are the next step on the road to the Olympics.

“I’ve obviously got great memories of racing in London, and I know that tickets for the World Championships have proved really popular, so it will be fantastic to get back there and perform in front of a big home crowd against world-class opposition again.”