Jack Carlin was spent, legs numb, brain fried, every joule of energy left out on the track. All he had left at the end of his day’s work was a bundle of emotion in one hand and a pocketful of joy coloured bronze. The 24-year-old weaved his best Paisley pattern and left Russian Denis Dmitriev thoroughly stitched up, a 2-0 victor in their tete-a-tete for third place in the men’s individual sprint, the decisive triumph secured by the sliver of 15-hundredths of one second.

A title lost, in one sense. The UK’s monopoly on this crown, which had stretched back to Chris Hoy in Beijing in 2008, gone Dutch with Harrie Lavreysen, Carlin’s conqueror in the semi-finals, snatching gold from compatriot Jeffrey Hoogland in the last of their best of three by +0.208 secs to supplement the team sprint title spirited across the North Sea just a few days before.

The only legacy Carlin must really add to, however, is his own. “I'm pretty proud to be fair,” he stated. “It's been a long year.” Quite a transformation within, improving technique and accelerating speed but also restoring his inner belief following the 20th place finish he contrived to claim at the 2020 world championships that threw a spanner right into his spokes.

The Herald:

In Japan, he has inherited the majestic mantle of the dethroned Jason Kenny. No easy burden. High bar, lofty standards, established previously by Hoy. Still small but critical improvements, Carlin senses, they can be made to body and mind.

“I think I’m still learning every race and I would say that if I’d gone into the semi with the same aggressiveness and confidence I did in every single other race I might have won,” he reflected.

“I came off after that and I was angry with myself. I just let my guard down a little bit and I suffered for it and lost the two semi-final rounds - to be fair, an unbelievable rider, because you have to be on you’re A-game against the two Dutch lads because they’re the best in the world, without a shadow of a doubt.

“But I switched it back on. I got a real slap across the back of the head and told ‘get your head in it’. I came out fighting and the main thing to take away is that if you have the belief you can go anywhere with it.”

Silver before, then bronze here. One more assault lurks in this weekend’s keirin. At that prospect, his eyes lit up and the battery was suddenly on recharge. “The confidence is there, the legs are there,” he insisted. “I'll get a good night's sleep tonight, reset the brain for tomorrow. There's only one colour missing now so I need to up my game and see what can happen.”