A YEAR after making his breakthrough onto the international cycling scene with a silver medal at the European Track Cycling Championships, Jack Carlin is looking to go one better this week in Berlin.

Paisley’s Carlin is part of Great Britain’s new generation of sprinters that are looking to surpass the established trio of Jason Kenny, Callum Skinner and Philip Hindes.

He teamed up with Joe Truman and Ryan Owens at last year’s European Championships to win silver in the team sprint last October, before going on to take gold in each of the first two rounds of the World Cup series.

The trio failed to make it past the quarter-finals of their maiden World Championships in April, but 20-year-old Carlin is still confident heading into the new track season – kicking off at the European Championships which start on Friday.

“I’m excited to see what it will bring this year,” said Carlin, who also won U23 European gold with Truman and Owens in the summer of 2016.

“Last year we got silver in what was our first senior event so we’re seeing if we can top that this year. We’re all going OK in training so I’m looking forward to it.

“Germany will put out a good team and the crowd will obviously be backing them, but they’re a very big cycling nation so I think the spectators will enjoy the racing in general and there should be a good atmosphere all round.

“We’ve put in the hard work and we just need to see how that goes in our racing.”

Carlin, Truman and Owens are all aged between 20 and 22, and have progressed through the British Cycling ranks as a trio.

And with the recent news of six-time Olympic champion Kenny returning to the track, as well as fellow Rio 2016 gold medallists Hindes and Skinner being just 25 and continuing to develop their careers, Carlin is excited by the current strength of British sprinting.

He added: “I think we’re all excited as a team too to see how we’re going because we’ve all been training really hard for this winter season. Joe, Ryan and I came up through the ranks together so we’ve got that strong bond.”