Scotland’s Chris Hoy anchored Britain to an historic victory in the coveted Olympic team sprint final yesterday to leave world champions France with the silver.
Hoy, who is aiming for a further two gold medals in the five-day, ten final competition, anchored the team home, after stunning rides from England’s Jamie Staff and Jason Kenny, in a time of 43.128 seconds.
France took the silver in 43.551 seconds, with defending champions Germany beating Australia to the bronze medal.
It is the first of a possible eight gold medals that the highly fancied British track squad could win here from the 10 gold medal events, in which Britain hold seven of the world titles.
Staff, Kenny and Hoy proved unstoppable in the qualifying round where they posted the fastest time of the field in 42.950 seconds.
They then dominated the first round in 43.034 seconds, giving France — who posted a first round time of 43.656 seconds — another reminder of their power.
France had chopped and changed their trio of riders, replacing 14-time world champion and anchor man Arnaud Tournant with Mickael Bourgain for the first round, before putting Tournant back in for the final.
Staff, a former BMX professional rider, was unstoppable over his first lap ride and then Kenny, a 20-year-old from Bolton who is the newest addition to the squad, took over in sensational style.
Kenny’s much-hyped power briefly proved too much for Hoy, who struggled to hold the Englishman’s wheel in the latter stages of their ride together.
But once he was left on his own Hoy, the reigning Olympic kilometer champion from Athens, powered round the last lap to finish comfortably ahead of Tournant.
Meanwhile, Wendy Houvenaghel clocked the fastest time in qualifying for the women’s individual pursuit to further boost Britain’s medal chances.
The northern-Irishwoman, a bronze medal winner at world level, clocked 3 minutes, 28.4 seconds for the 3km race against the clock to claim her place in the first round alongside reigning world champion and teammate Rebecca Romero.
The British duo’s performances have raised the bar for the likes of Sarah Hammer of the US and Australian Katie Mactier.
Hammer only finished fifth fastest in 3 minutes, 35.471 seconds.
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