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Sunday, 19 February 2012

Hoy Wins Second Gold at Velodrome


Sir Chris Hoy powered to victory in the individual sprint to win his second gold medal of the Track World Cup at London's Olympic Velodrome.

Hoy beat Germany's Maximilian Levy 2-0 in the final to complete a successful meeting personally that included keirin gold and team sprint bronze.

GB also took men's team pursuit silver, while Laura Trott won omnium bronze.

That left the host nation top of the medals table with four golds, one silver and two bronzes.

“Next time I come back here, hopefully I'll be in much better shape and show them how it's done”Victoria Pendleton

Hoy, 35, lost just one race in four knockout rounds of sprinting on Sunday, coming through 2-1 in a tense battle with France's six-time world champion Gregory Bauge in the quarter-finals.

The reigning Olympic champion looked near his best in the final against Levy, taking the opening race comfortably and blowing the German away down the home straight to seal victory in the second.

"I had a tough day out there," Hoy told BBC Sport.

"I felt it in my legs this morning. I'm really pleased - more than the actual result is the way I rode. I've been making mistakes in the sprint recently but I only made one today. I see this as an important step for the Olympics."

Trott completed an impressive weekend by adding bronze in the six-discipline omnium event to the gold she won in the women's team pursuit on Friday.

"I'm really pleased," said the 19-year-old Londoner. "I was a bit disappointed yesterday with the points race because that let my overall [score] down, but there's still time to work on it so I'm happy with the bronze.

"We are going to do some work on the points race because that's the difference between winning and losing."

The British men's pursuit team of Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh professed themselves satisfied with a time of three minutes 56.330 seconds in their final.

However, Australia's Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, Alex Edmondson and Michael Hepburn looked mightily impressive as they clocked 3:54.615 - the second-fastest time in history - to confirm their current status as the best in the world.

"We're disappointed because we want to win but, looking at the time, we haven't gone that fast in a while," said Thomas.

"There's a lot for us to work on but the way we got stuck in was great and the crowd here is crazy. It's unbelievable. Without them we would have lost by about 10 seconds."

Asked if he thought they could overhaul the Australians by the Olympics, Clancy said: "I think so. First things first, we never said we were going to set the world on fire here. The Aussies are a force to be reckoned with but I think we've got more to come.

"We need a bit more endurance and a bit more tolerance at the back end of the race, but when we're all focused on the track I think we can go places."

Victoria Pendleton and Jessica Varnish started the final day with hopes of success in the keirin but only Pendleton made the final, and she could only manage fifth place after finding her route blocked in the closing stages.

"I didn't expect to squeeze through that gap, it was a bit naive on my account," said Pendleton. "I really haven't got anything left in the legs. I didn't want to lead out as many of the heats as I had to.

"It's been a positive learning experience. That's what we set out for it to be. I didn't want to put high expectations on myself; mind you it's nice to win but it's not easy to deal with when you're not in peak condition.

"Next time I come back here, hopefully I'll be in much better shape and show them how it's done."

GB MEDALS IN LONDON
GOLD:
Women's team pursuit (Laura Trott, Joanna Rowsell, Dani King)
Women's individual pursuit (Joanna Rowsell)
Men's keirin (Sir Chris Hoy)
Men's individual sprint (Sir Chris Hoy)

SILVER:
Men's team pursuit (Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh, Steven Burke)

BRONZE:
Men's team sprint (Ross Edgar, Jason Kenny, Sir Chris Hoy)
Women's omnium (Laura Trott)