Laura Trott hits back at rivals' questions over GB Rio performance

Laura Trott has hit back at cyclists from other who have raised questions over how Team GB's riders were able to dominate at the velodrome at Rio, pointing out that the country targets the Olympic Games above world championships.

Riders including Australian former Olympic champion Anna Meares and Germany's Kristina Vogel, who won sprint gold against Great Britain's Becky James in Rio last week, have questioned how Team GB has managed to take most of the gold medals on the track programme in the last three Games despite often lacklustre performances in the world championships, which are held annually.

> Rivals question GB Olympic track cycling success

Team GB's track cyclists won six medals from nine events at Rio - the country missed qualification for the women's team sprint - compared to seven in 10 events at both Beijing in 2008 and at London four years ago.

In 2012, Trott helped Team GB win the women's sprint and also won the first ever women's omnium, and she also  claimed gold in both events this time round.

The 24-year-old, who a week ago today became Great Britain's most successful ever female Olympian as she claimed her fourth gold medal of her career, told BBC 5 Live:  "It is a little bit frustrating because there's a lot of hard work gone into that performance."

She added: "British Cycling has always been very much an Olympic-based programme, so for us it wasn't about clearing up at the World Championships.

"It's always been around the Olympics and that's what our funding is pushed towards."

British Cycling's funding via UK Sport, £30 million in the four-year cycle ahead of Rio, is based on performance at the Olympics - and is likely to increase after Team GB took 12 medals at Rio against a target of 8-10.

By contrast, the Australian sport funding model is based in large part on its riders' performance at world championships.

While Cycling Australia is calling for changes to funding to make its riders more competitive at the Olympics, there's the added complication between now and Tokyo 2020 of a home Commonwealth Games on Queensland's Gold Coast to contend with in 2018, where home riders will be expected to challenge for gold.

> Cycling Australia pushes to adopt GB Olympic-based funding model

In the four editions of the world championships after Beijing, Australia topped the medal table each time, with 23 wins, but Great Britain emulated them in the final edition ahead of London 2012 by taking six golds, their rivals forging ahead by virtue of having more medals in total - but many of those in non-Olympic events.

In the build-up to Rio, Australian riders took 11 world championship victories, but were second or third in the table each time - while Great Britain finished top in both 2013 and 2016, with five victories each time.

But while Team GB took 20 Olympic gold medals between Beijing, London and Rio, Australia has just one - Anna Meares' individual sprint gold in London.