Fifth gold for Hoy as Britain defend team sprint

Britain’s three-man sprint team clocked their second world record of the night to successfully defend their Olympic title in the final against France at a packed London Velodrome yesterday.

Philip Hindes, Jason Kenny and Sir Chris Hoy completed their three-lap effort in a new world mark of 42.600sec, beating the record of 42.747 they had set earlier in qualifying.

Germany beat Australia for the bronze.

Hoy has now pulled level on the gold medals count with British Olympic legend Sir Steve Redgrave, who won five golds and one bronze from the Games rowing events.

The 36-year-old Scot’s tally of six Olympic medals includes five gold – one in London, three in Beijing and one in Athens in 2004 – and a silver medal from Sydney.

Despite the French team’s determination to avenge their defeat to Britain in Beijing and Britain missing out on a medal at the world championships in April, Hoy said they knew the gold was within reach – if they had a flawless race.

“We knew it was possible. This didn’t just come out of the blue, but we knew if we kept it together, we had to have the best possible race,” said Hoy.

“It’s easier said than done. We had an excellent training camp in Newport. We had the full support of the team, and we nailed it.”

Kenny, who was given the nod over Hoy for Britain’s sole place in the individual match sprint, was one of the team’s star performers after Hindes had given the hosts a fast start.

“I was struggling to hold on to his wheel,” admitted Hoy.

The Englishman admitted they had been extra-determined after their worlds campaign “went disastrously wrong”.

“We kept it really tight and controlled the emotions,” said Kenny. “I cannot believe how good things went today. There are a few guys here who are absolutely flying, we knew it was going to be a really close competition.

“This was probably the closest sprint competition there’s ever been.”

Earlier, Germany’s Miriam Welte and Kristina Vogel were crowned inaugural Olympic women’s team sprint champions in controversial fashion following the relegation of China.

Guo Shuang and Gong Jinjie had combined to claim an historic first Olympic gold in the two-lap event, the first ever Olympic cycling title for China, only to be relegated soon after for an infringement.

It means China were relegated to the silver medal position, with Australia, who beat Ukraine in the battle for third place, winning the bronze.

Earlier, Olympic and six-time world sprint champion Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish, of Britain, were relegated from the first round for an “irregular change”.