His wife Sally Boardman also got in on the act, stepping to her husband’s defence.
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The British rider overcame two race restarts where he faced a potential disqualification to become GB’s joint most successful Olympian beside Sir Chris Hoy on seven gold medals.
It meant she had a healthy cushion going into the frenetic points race, a 100-lap ride where sprints offer points.
After his victory, he embraced his fiancee and fellow gold medal victor Laura Trott, who was in tears in the centre of the track. It’s special, I’m really proud of Laura’.
On a historic day at the Rio Olympic Games, Kenny won Team GB’s 48th medal with his win in the keirin.
Kenny, 28, won his sixth Games gold medal in claiming keirin glory at the Rio velodrome, drawing level with fellow track cycling great Chris Hoy as Britain’s most successful Olympian of all time.
Jason Kenny and Laura Trott’s combined total of five gold medals at the Rio Olympics would have them sitting in 13th place in the current medal table, were they an individual nation.
In a sport tarnished by doping scandals, German Kristina Vogel called the success “very questionable” while others said Team GB performed better than results between Games had indicated. There was a first ever cycling medal for Malaysia, as Azizulhasni Awang took bronze.
After crossing the line, still 24 points in front of Hammer, she headed for the seats populated by a noisy British element, grabbing a flag emblazoned with the words “Go Trotty Go”.
Picking up points in sprints throughout as well as an extra lap – in which she was joined by second-placed JolienD’Hoore of Belgium and third placed Sarah Hammer of the USA- Trott had extended her lead to 29 points entering the final 40 laps, with four sprints remaining.
With the victory, the 24-year-old clinched her second successive team pursuit and omnium double after she also won both events at London in 2012. The keirin race had to be stopped twice after riders were adjudged to have passed the derny pace bike before it had left the track.
“But I would like to add that in these four years we’ve won 12 world titles”, he said.
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It was about coming here and winning as many golds as we could.
