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CYCLING: Britons dominate at the track

Britain continued their dominance of the Olympic track cycling events yesterday by adding two gold medals, two silver and a bronze to their impressive victory in the men’s team sprint.

Bradley Wiggins successfully defended his Olympic crown when he won the individual pursuit, leaving New Zealand’s Hayden Roulston with the silver.

Scotland’s Chris Hoy, the reigning Olympic kilometer champion, then confirmed he truly is the king of the keirin when he dominated a six-man field to claim his second gold of the Games and the third of his career.

Fellow Scot Ross Edgar finished second in the keirin to take the silver medal.

Earlier, Christopher Newton got in on the act by claiming a well deserved bronze behind German silver medalist Roger Kluge, as Spanish veteran Joan Llaneras reclaimed the Olympic points race crown he won at Sydney in 2000.

Newton’s British teammate Steven Burke then put his pursuit credentials on display by winning the match-up for the pursuit bronze medal against Russian Alexey Markov.

It means Britain, who could realistically medal in all 10 events being held until Tuesday at the Laoshan Velodrome, have had riders on the podium in all four finals held so far, winning two medals in two of them and claiming six of the total 12 awarded to date.

Britain are guaranteed another two medals, when Rebecca Romero faces compatriot Wendy Houvenaghel in the final of the women’s individual pursuit, the only final being held today.

The 27-year-old Wiggins had on Friday set a new Olympic record in qualifying for the first round of the pursuit, but the Londoner was somewhat off that pace as he battled Roulston.

Wiggins finished the final of the 4,000m race against the clock in a time of 4 minutes, 16.9 seconds for the 4,000m, where Roulston led for the first 2,000m before trailing in the closing stages.

The Kiwi eventually finished nearly three seconds off the winning pace in 4 minutes, 19.6 seconds.

Burke, competing in his first Olympics, dominated Markov in their fight for the bronze, the Englishman posting a time of 4 minutes, 20.9 seconds. Markov finished nearly four seconds adrift.

Victory meant Wiggins, already Britain’s most decorated cyclist, had won his fifth Olympic medal — the first of three possible golds at these Games.

The Belgium-born time trial specialist will also spearhead Britain’s pursuit team, then pair up with Mark Cavendish in a bid to add Olympic gold to the Madison world title they won in March.

Hoy, who anchored Britain’s sprint team to gold ahead of France on Friday, had made his way into the keirin final with relative ease and was simply unstoppable again in the battle for gold, taking a significant lead before the bell signaling the final lap and driving home to the finish unchallenged.

In his wake, Edgar put in a late burst to claim a well deserved silver that will comfort him after he had been ousted from Britain’s sprint team on Friday in favor of 20-year-old Jason Kenny.
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