Laura Trott became the first female athlete representing Britain to win a fourth Olympic gold medal after wrapping up women’s omnium title on Tuesday.
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Not everything went well for Britain, though.
Australia’s Annette Edmondson, the 2015 world champion, had been in medal contention before the points race but was totally out of sorts and fell away meekly, finishing eighth overall.
Kenny had too much pace down the final stretch, recovering from a slow start to finish just clear of second placed Matthijs Buchli of the Netherlands.
The bigger intrigue was who would take silver.
Just 100 giddying laps of the track – punctuated by occasional mad dash sprints – stood between her and a return trip to the podium.
The sprint stars’ records are identical: six gold and one silver medal.
“Jolien is an unbelievable racer”.
“Whether I’ll even have a place in the squad when I come back… it is going to be very competitive and tough. That’s her specialty. the points races”, Hammer said.
Vogel proved to be one of the only riders to solve the British puzzle.
Jason Kenny capped another dynamic cycling performance with the gold medal in the keirin, his third in Rio de Janeiro and the sixth for his team.
Vogel had a problem with her saddle at the start of the race, causing a brief delay. Riders must stay behind the back wheel of the derny before it leaves the track.
Kenny’s profile is nearly absurdly low given his success, and stands in contrast to his future wife, who is dutiful and engaging with a media that swoons at her effervescence and emotional honesty.
In fact, he is general manager at Perrys Bolton, and although can’t claim to be a sporting hero, has certainly performed well in his chosen profession, saying on LinkedIn that he has taken a poorly performing dealership from a huge loss to a good profit – with a swing of almost £500,000 in just five years.
Kenny’s victory was less clear-cut.
But having already won team sprint and individual sprint gold – taking his tally to five – he was eager for another.
But jurors reviewed film and decided on a full-field restart.
“Our athletes are busting their backsides to be at the top level and so what we need to do is look a little bit deeper as to why we haven’t moved from March to August at the same rate, particularly as Great Britain”, he said.
Racing was stopped again after Germany’s world champion Joachim Eilers made the same infringement, but also avoided being penalised. “I was just floating through it”, the 28-year-old said.
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Trott was leading the women’s omnium, a multi-event competition to test the best rider over a series of sprint and endurance races, coming into the decisive points race.
