Queally Out As Young Guns Are Given Chance of World Titles

Great Britain will contest the world championships in Manchester from March 26 without three mainstays of the team, Jason Queally, the 2000 Olympic kilometer champion, Chris Newton and Craig MacLean, but the squad announced yesterday remains competitive, with the selectors clearly looking beyond Beijing by including three young academy members, Steven Burke, David Daniell and Jessica Varnish.

The core of the team remains, with Victoria Pendleton, Chris Hoy and Bradley Wiggins, who took seven world titles between them at last year's championships in Mallorca, but the cast around them looks a little different. MacLean, a fixture in the team since 1995, announced his withdrawal from the team over the weekend, as did Queally, Dave Brailsford, the performance director, said yesterday.

Queally is in competition with Hoy for the anchor position in the three-man team sprint but was unlikely to be selected ahead of the Scot. "Jason has ridden the third and fourth fastest last laps in the team sprint this season, which is right on the money, but overall Chris has performed better this year," said Brailsford. The team sprint is likely to be contested by Jamie Staff, Ross Edgar and Hoy, who will also seek to build on his fine winter in the motor-paced keirin event.

Both Queally and MacLean are concentrating on winning Olympic slots through trials which will be held by July. Newton would have been a shoo-in for the points race had he not broken his collarbone last week. His place will be taken by the sprinter Mark Cavendish, who will also race the Madison with Bradley Wiggins, and possibly the men's scratch race.

Burke, a double gold medalist in the European junior team-pursuit championship, may well be blooded in the men's omnium after stepping up to the senior team for the Copenhagen World Cup this winter. Daniell, twice a junior world track champion in the team sprint, is to make his debut at senior level in the kilometer, no longer an Olympic event. "We are looking to him for 2012, so this is a good interim goal," said Brailsford.

Varnish, silver medalist at last year's junior world championships, is another debutant at this level and at 17 the sprinter from Bromsgrove will be one of the youngest Britons ever to race a senior world championship.

Great Britain Lizzie Armitstead (Otley), Anna Blyth (Leeds), Steve Burke (Burnley), Mark Cavendish (Isle of Man), Ed Clancy (Huddersfield), Matt Crampton (Manchester), Kate Cullen (Edinburgh), Steve Cummings (Wirral), David Daniell (Middlesbrough), Ross Edgar (Newmarket), Rob Hayles (Portsmouth), Wendy Houvenaghel (Cornwall), Chris Hoy (Edinburgh), Jason Kenny (Bolton), Paul Manning (Birmingham/Stockport), Vicky Pendleton (Stotfold, Herts), Shanaze Reade (Crewe), Rebecca Romero (High Wycombe), Jo Rowsell (Sutton, London), Jamie Staff (Ashford, Kent), Geraint Thomas (Cardiff), Jessica Varnish (Bromsgrove), Bradley Wiggins (Maida Vale, London).