HAVE YOUR SAY: Glittering end for Hoy sees him land sixth gold

Britain equalled their Beijing track haul of seven gold medals, with Hoy, Jason Kenny and Laura Trott – who yesterday claimed omnium gold – completing double successes in front of a raucous, partisan crowd.

Hoy was not selected to defend his sprint title, but Kenny won, and the 36-year-old Scot’s victory in the keirin was a fitting finale to an Olympic career which began in Sydney, featured one-kilometre time-trial gold in Athens and triple gold in China in 2008.

“I can’t express the feeling that I’m having right now,” said Hoy. “It’s just unbelievable; it’s the most amazing feeling.

“This is the perfect end to my Olympic career, I look back four Games ago to Sydney and I was just over the moon to have a silver medal. If I’d stopped then I’d have been a happy boy but to have gone to Athens, Beijing and to here, I can’t put into words what it means.

“There’s no way I could have done it without the support team we’ve got here. This is very much a team effort and I’m literally just the one person you see at the top of the pile.

“There are 100 guys working away in the background that don’t get the credit.

“I think people see the final polished product of the British team and they think we must be super confident, we must win all the time, it must be easy for us – it’s anything but.

“There have been some really difficult moments and to get through them all and succeed here, it’s just one of the greatest feelings I’ve ever had.”

Few thought it would be possible for Britain to approach their tally of seven gold medals from 10 events in China four years ago, particularly after the International Cycling Union made wholesale changes to the track programme and introduced regulations limiting to one the number of riders per nation in each individual event.

Hoy and Kenny kicked off the gold rush on Thursday with victory alongside Philip Hindes in the men’s team sprint.

Team pursuit gold for Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh and Barnsley’s Ed Clancy followed on Friday, when Victoria Pendleton also claimed keirin gold, and the women’s team pursuit squad of Trott, Joanna Rowsell and Dani King were triumphant on Saturday.

Sunday saw Clancy claim omnium bronze and Monday night’s penultimate evening of competition featured a scintillating gold for Kenny in the sprint.

In the final day’s three medal events, Trott triumphed in the omnium and Hoy won the keirin, but Pendleton had to settle for silver in the final race of her career, the women’s sprint final.

The 31-year-old is now set to retire after being beaten to gold by old adversary Anna Meares of Australia.

“I’m just so relieved right now,” said Pendleton. “I’ve been a bit overwhelmed with emotion. I would have loved to have won on my final race, but I’m just so glad that’s it all done.”

Pendleton gave an insight into how challenging it has been for her to meet the expectations which come from being part of the successful GB programme.

“Success breeds success, as cliched as that sounds,” added Pendleton.

“When I came into the team, back in the day – 2001 – I came into a team full of world and Olympic champions and there was only one thing they were expecting of me and that was to emulate what the guys had already achieved or more.

“I can’t do it any more. I could not do it for another year. It’s difficult to maintain those high standards.

“Chris Hoy manages it very well, but I’ve found it very difficult year after year.”