Chris Hoy pedals into the record books

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Ian Chadband|Chief Sports Correspondent|In Beijing

13 April 2012

Chris Hoy was being hailed here today as our Olympian of the century after becoming the first Briton in 100 years to win three gold medals at the same Games.

Yet while the all-conquering British team toasted their emotional Scottish sprint king after he powered to glory in a head-to-head with his young colleague Jason Kenny, they also saluted the popular woman known to all of cycling as the queen of the track as Victoria Pendleton roared to an equally majestic sprint victory.

To say there was a slightly anti-climactic feel when Bradley Wiggins failed in his bid to match Hoy's triple gold and missed out on a medal in the Madison would be just too, too greedy because today's two golds meant Dave Brailsford's wondrous team ended the week-long track programme with seven golds, the most won by any single nation in one Games.

Chuck in three silvers and two bronze and call the Monopolies Commission.

And how fitting it was that the bullnecked "Mr Incredible" himself, 32-year-old Hoy, should end the unreal medal assault as he started it when he led the men's sprint team to victory. This time, he did it on his own but had to find his most murderously swift finishing to deal with the challenge of Bolton's Kenny, who'd helped him to gold last Friday, beating him two races to nil in the best-of-three final.

A crowd which included everyone from Tony Blair to Queen Sophia of Spain rose as one to cheer a truly staggering achievement. For not only had Hoy become the first man since swimmer Henry Taylor at the London Games in 1908 to win three golds in a Games but this was his fourth gold medal in all, amazingly all picked up in different events.

This is the man who discovered to his dismay that his Olympic-winning discipline from the Athens Games, the kilometre, was being taken off the Beijing programme. Instead of sulking, the Edinburgh powerhouse reinvented himself, turning into the master of the Keirin and now Britain's first ever Olympic master of the match sprint.

He and Kenny were so superior to their rivals in the individual sprint - cat-and-mouse jockeying for position for two laps, followed by a blur of wheels for 200m - that neither was remotely challenged in their semi-finals, the Scot destroying Frenchman Mickael Bourgain 2-0, while Kenny toyed with German Maximilian Levy in both races.

For the second time during the week, following Rebecca Romero's defeat of Wendy Houvenaghel in the women's pursuit, it meant a guaranteed one-two for Britain, only this time it was a battle of the generations.

Twice, the young gun Kenny felt his best bet was to make the long run for home from about 300 metres out; twice, the 'old man of Hoy' was just too strong, outmuscling him to win both races by half a wheel, clocking 10.228sec and 10.216sec respectively for the last 200 metres in each clash.

Yet, if anything, the team's delight for Pendleton was even greater. For unlike Hoy and Wiggins, the triple world champion did not have multiple shots at gold but just one opportunity.

But the 27-year-old, who had buckled under the pressure in Athens four years ago, is a completely different proposition these days thanks to the guidance of team psychologist Dr Steve Peters and, after breezing to an effortless two-nil victory in her semi-final against Dutchwoman Willy Kanis, a similarly consummate triumph in the final against Australian Anna Meares felt particularly sweet.

Sweet because Meares, who'd earlier benefitted in her semi from the disqualification of home favourite Guo Shuang for barging on the track, was once Pendleton's nemesis and even sweeter because it was the only final which the Aussies, who won five track cycling golds at the last Games in Athens - previously the greatest haul by any nation at any Games - managed to reach in the Laoshan Velodrome.

Pendleton just seemed to rub it in on the old enemy as she powered that unfeasibly slight looking frame away from her rival with searing brilliance, first leading out from the front in their first race to rip in an 11.363sec last 200 metres and win as she liked.

Second time around, Meares gave out the body language of someone already beaten and when Pendleton made her move, she opened up a five bike-length lead in a blur of pedalling, covering the last 200m even quicker in 11.118sec.

Wiggins had always rated the Madison, the manic 200-lap, 50km marathon featuring 16 two-man relay teams, as the "event in which anything can happen" and felt it would be the most difficult of all his gold medal shots, especially since he feared he and Tour de France star Mark Cavendish would be "marked men".

He was not wrong. Gold number three proved just too much as their every attack was covered. Wiggins, too, appeared to be betrayed by weariness after six exhausting pursuit rides in the previous four days and they could only finish ninth in an event won by Argentina.

It was only the second track event of 10 all week that Britain had failed to medal in. London 2012 has an almost impossible cycling act to follow; we may never see a British success story like this again in our lifetime.

Chris Hoy pedals into the record books

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