The GB cycling team sprint trio of
Chris Hoy,
Jason Kenny and
Jamie Staff handed out a half-second defeat to world champions France to strike Olympic gold at the Laoshan Velodrome tonight (Friday).
The trio produced a powerful display, setting the three fastest times of the competition - including a world record on their first run - to beat the team that pushed Great Britain into the silver medal position at the World Championships in Manchester in March.
It was Britain’s second cycling gold of Beijing 2008 and third cycling medal of the Games, following Nicole Cooke’s road racing gold and Emma Pooley’s time trial silver.
A delighted Hoy, who won silver in the team sprint in Sydney eight years ago, said: “To beat them by half a second made it that exciting. Honestly, it took every inch of effort in beating the French, who have been invincible.
“The French have been so dominant. They beat us by such a big margin in Manchester that I thought it would be difficult here,” he added. “We’ve really put all the pieces of the jigsaw together. We really focussed on the details."
Staff added: “France won the World Championships in 2006, 2007 and 2008. They were half a second up on us in March we really didn’t have any answers, so this has really got to hurt them.
“We knew we had more to come and we didn’t ever give up hope.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet, I’ve given absolutely everything I could and it paid off,” he added. “I wanted to get excited when I knew we had won a gold or silver, but we had to try to keep emotions out of it, because there was still a job to do.
“Four years of work flashed in front of my face when Chris crossed the finish line, and it was all worth it," he added. "We’ve got a fantastically strong team. We showed everyone at the worlds how strong we are. I’m ecstatic.”
Hoy, Kenny and Staff set the early pace, setting a world record time in the qualifying round, riding against the Germans.
The GB team led from the start, crossing the finish line in 42.950 seconds at the end of the three laps. France and Germany set the second and third fastest times respectively.
That set up a first round contest against the USA. Team GB once again produced a powerful display to win in 43.034 seconds.
And in the final they beat the French trio of Gregory Bauge, Kevin Sireau and Arnaud Tournant by 0.523 seconds – with Hoy crossing the line for gold in 43.128 seconds. That was a reversal of the result at the World Championships in Manchester in March – when France won gold by more than half a second from GB.
Meanwhile, Britain’s cyclists also looked in awesome form in the opening round of the individual pursuit.
Bradley Wiggins began the defence of his individual pursuit title by setting an Olympic record of 4:15.031, taking 0.134 seconds off his own record from Athens four years ago.
Steven Burke also goes through to tomorrow’s first round with the fifth fastest time of 4:22.260 for the 4000m.
He said: “I was very cautious at he beginning. I often roll during the first two laps – I’m like a bull in a china shop. With six laps to go I decided to kick in and I saw the splits coming down.”
Wiggins faces Alexander Serov of Russia tomorrow, while Burke rides against Volodymyr Dyudya of Ukraine.
Team GB were also dominant in the women’s 3000m individual pursuit, with Wendy Houvenaghel setting the fastest time (3:28.443) and Rebecca Romero the second fastest (3:28.641).
Romero said: “I’m really pleased with that. Today was all about putting myself in a good position for the next round heading for the final.”
Go to www.teamgb.com and click on 'Results' to view all the latest Team GB results. Click on 'Team GB' to view profiles of all Team GB athletes.
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