British cyclist Katy Marchant has said the team miss Jess Varnish and Becky James as they failed to qualify for the women's team sprint in Tokyo.

James won a silver and a bronze medal at the Rio 2016 Games, while Varnish was controversially sacked before the last Olympics.

Team GB are also yet to secure spots in the individual sprint and keirin.

And Marchant has said the lack of depth and experience in the Great Britain squad is something that has contributed to them missing out on events at the Tokyo Games.

"I think so because of their experience. A lot of the riders now are a lot younger," she said.

"We were thin on the ground after the Rio Olympics. With Becky leaving, I was the sole rider. Then we had two or three academy riders and that is not enough to produce an Olympic gold-winning team.

"It is disappointing we didn't qualify for the team sprint. But you can't create a team of two with just two riders, you need to have people to be able to back you up.

"We are in a good place moving forward to 2024. We've got a group of five, six girls now that are all capable of big things in the future, but they are just not quite able to step up right this minute."