Hoy lands fifth gold as GB smash WR
Sir Chris Hoy won a fifth Olympic gold after Great Britain's men's team sprint squad triumphed on a night of high drama at the London 2012 Olympic Velodrome.
After Victoria Pendleton and Jess Varnish were relegated from the team sprint for a takeover infringement and Britain's men's team pursuit quartet set a world record, Hoy, Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny progressed to the final of the three-man, three-lap team sprint in a world record of 42.747 seconds.
The British trio clocked another world record in a stunning finale, finishing in 42.600secs.
In a repeat of the final four years ago in Beijing, France's Gregory Bauge, Michael D'Almeida and Kevin Sireau had to settle for silver, finishing in 43.013.
Hoy, competing in his fourth Games, won one-kilometre time-trial gold in Athens in 2004, three titles in Beijing and has now drawn level with Sir Steve Redgrave as the Briton with the most Games golds.
Kenny now has a second Olympic gold and third medal in all, while for Hindes it capped a remarkable period after a rapid rise to prominence, not least on Thursday after he fell to the track after a wobbly start to qualifying. Bronze went to Germany (43.209), with world champions Australia (43.355) fourth.
An emotional Hoy wiped a tear from his eye on the top step of the podium as the national anthem finished playing, with the partisan crowd singing along.
He told BBC One: "It is quite overwhelming. We knew it was possible, this hasn't come out of the blue. We knew that if we put together our best possible race on the day that it was possible but it's easier said than done.
"We had the full support of the team behind us and we nailed it.
"That last ride I dug deeper than I have ever dug before. I didn't want to let the boys down, they have been riding so well. You can't overstate what it means to us in front of our home crowd."
