Jack Carlin is keeping cool on his hunt for gold

Jack Carlin insists he isn’t feeling the pressure as he continues to hunt down a long-awaited major championship gold.

The Scottish star, 25, has racked up virtually every Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth silver and bronze going on the track but is still yet to clamber to the summit of the podium.

Carlin kicked off his European Championship campaign in Munich yesterday as he joined forces with fellow Scot Alistair Fielding, 22, and Hamish Turnbull, 23, to finish second in qualifying.

The youthful trio crossed the line 0.6s behind the Netherlands and will now face Spain in a Friday lunchtime shootout for a place in the evening’s final.

Carlin, a two-time Tokyo medallist last summer, has three European medals – none of them gold – but says he isn’t getting impatient as opportunity knocks once again.

He said: “I want to win every time I race.

“But I’m also well aware that if people are better than you on the day, they’re better than you.

“You just have to keep plugging away and hope the time will come.

“I still enjoy riding the bike, and that's the reason I'm here.

“It’s not massive about walking to the top of that podium - I enjoy the atmosphere and what I do day in, day out.

“As long as you keep that focus and that mentality, then the result I want will come eventually.

“It’s nice to be back with the GB squad and two of the younger lads.

“We don’t really know what to expect but it feels good.

“I'm feeling quite comfortable in the individual events – and we’ll see if we can get a medal in the team stuff as well.”

The British team are an inexperienced trio on paper but delivered a solid opening display at the Messe Munchen velodrome.

Fielding joined Carlin in competing for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games while Turnbull flew the English flag in the Birmingham sprint event.

But they joined forces in one of the first events of the multi-sports European Championships – lasting 11 days in Munich and featuring nine sports – to safely navigate their way through their heat.

Fielding loved locking horns with Turnbull in the West Midlands and hopes channelling a carefree mentality after ‘battling out egos’ can fire them onto the podium.

“There was some friendly competition at the Commonwealth Games – we've had that bit of fun and the egos have been battled out,” he said.

“Now it's back to teammates having a bit of fun again and a laugh with the boys.

“We’ve come here and want to deliver as well as we can - we know it's been a tough past few months so we’ve not really gone in with too many expectations.

“It’s just about having some fun and then preparing for the Worlds when we get back.

“I think we can take a lot of confidence from that ride. We’ve got a lot to find technically but physically, we’re there.

“We’re still getting used to the track, so hopefully we can step up tomorrow and be in a really good place physically.”

The multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022, featuring Athletics, Beach Volleyball, Canoe Sprint, Cycling, Gymnastics, Table Tennis, Triathlon, Rowing, Sport Climbing, takes place 11th-21st August on the 50th anniversary of the Olympics Games in the German city. Follow online at [bbc.co.uk/sport]bbc.co.uk/sport