The Herts racer said the three and a half year period between London 2012 and the Rio Olympics had been a hard one, when the riders didn’t have the benefit of all the top-class kit and equipment lavished on them.
Advertisement
“That’s what great rivals, champions and teams like GBR do”. But the two British sprinters still swept the other two medals up for grabs, a sign of just how dominant their nation is in the sport.
And on a night when his partner Laura Trott became the most decorated British woman of all time with her fourth gold, in the omnium, Kenny finally did his job in the velodrome.
Jason, 28, who won three Olympic gold medals at Beijing and London, won golds in the individual and team sprints at Rio.
And it could have been even better.
Vogel was just about the only track cyclist to stop Britain’s gold rush at the Rio Games, beating Katy Marchant in the semifinals and Becky James in the finals.
Chinese sprint duo Gong Jinjie and Zhong Tianshi won the women’s team sprint in which Britain did not compete while Mark Cavendish was edged out by Elia Viviani in the men’s omnium.
“I think it was the right decision to put everyone back in, obviously I was happy to be put back in”, Kenny said.
Retired Welsh boxer Joe Calzaghe – who had a ideal 46-0 record – was also born on March 23.
British pursuit star Joanna Rowsell-Shand said the point is to peak for the Olympics, not for the world championships or any other competition.
Then when Trott inspired the women’s quartet to gold in a world-record time in the final against a USA side boasting a high-tech bike specially created to beat Britain.
Ten events yielded six gold medals, four silver medals and a bronze. “Unless there is something hidden in there or some insane advance in technology”, he said.
“When he first came on board at Beijing we knew we had a talent, but we didn’t know what a special talent he was”, Hoy told the BBC.
Vogel had suggested something untoward was behind Britain’s apparent invincibility.
“People were turning up asking could they meet him and they were a bit disappointed when I stepped out”.
“Of course it’s a question”.
“They had so much belief in me, walking away with a bronze medal I just can’t believe it”.
No stone is left unturned to find the “marginal gains” former team boss Dave Brailsford was once obsessed about.
British coach Iain Dyer insisted it was a fallacy to suggest his team is not successful at the worlds.
“They don’t trust us”, Trott said.
“You realise how good everything was, and the form we had at the Olympics”.
“Then we target the Olympics”.
Advertisement
And it brought with it gushing praise from the man he may yet surpass four years from now in Tokyo.
