British cycling’s power couple Jason Kenny & Laura Trott dominated on Tuesday as they helped Team GB take their medals tally to 50 in Rio.
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The British riders, who will get married next month, stole the show in contrasting style. Now she has four and at the age of 24 there is no telling how many she might eventually collect.
And Kenny then made history of his own – equaling his former teammate Chris Hoy’s all-time British record of six gold medals after winning a nerve-shredding keirin race, in which he was nearly disqualified.
After taking gold, Kenny embraced his fiancee and fellow gold medal victor Laura Trott, who was in tears in the centre of the track. “I don’t want to cry”, she told ther BBC, as she broke down in tears. She worries enough for both of us so I can stay relaxed. “I heard the gun go and I thought ‘Damn”. I would hate to think that we had half-committed and then it didn’t happen for us. It just started to snowball.
The was a shock in the Women’s 1,500-metres final as Ethiopia’s Genzebe Dibaba was beaten to gold.
To come back and win the omnium, it’s just incredible.
“You realize how everything was good, the form you had, during the Olympics”. “We did a lot of work in the gym”. Add that to the five gold medals the couple won in London 2012, and they’re the most successful Olympic couple, with a total of 10 gold medals between them.
USA eight-time world champion Sarah Hammer won her second Rio silver medal with 206 points, followed by Belgian Jolien D’hoore’s 199 points for bronze.
While Trott was totally dominant in the omnium, Kenny’s keirin victory was controversial. Twice the race was stopped because riders jumped ahead of the derny, making for an unusual tense period while judges discussed how to proceed, but Kenny managed his nerves to win the race. Awang’s third-place finish brought home the first ever cycling medal for Malaysia.
Racing was stopped again after Germany’s world champion Joachim Eilers made the same infringement, but also avoided being penalised. Matthijs Buchli from the Netherland took home the silver. “It felt like a dream”. I guess I’m exhausted.
The 28-year-old has now matched Chris Hoy’s 2008 achievement of winning three titles at one Olympics to move level with the Scot as the Briton with the most Games golds.
“I still feel like that little girl just riding around on a bike, but now I have all these gold medals”.
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Rio de Janeiro, Aug 17: British track cyclists continued their strong performance at the Rio Olympics, increasing their gold collection to six after winning women’s omnium and men’s keirin.
