Keirin, Men

Twenty-five racers started the keirin, but all eyes were on Chris Hoy, the 2007-08 World Champion, who had already won gold in Beijing in the team sprint. The event was overshadowed by the the failure of three pre-race favorites – former World Champion Teun Mulder of the Netherlands was disqualified in the first-round repêchage; his teammate, Theo Bos, who did not finish the second semi-final, crashing over Kamil Kuczyński, when he fell; and defending Olympic champion Ryan Bayley of Australia, who finished last in the first semi. Hoy made it to the final without being challenged, winning both his rounds. His biggest challengers in the final looked to be Australian Shane Kelly and France’s Arnaud Tournant, but the final was all Hoy, who jumped into the lead shortly after derny exited the track and could not be caught. His teammate, Ross Edgar, outsprinted Japan’s Kiyofumi Nagai for the silver medal, with Kelly placing fourth and Tournant sixth. Keirin is very popular in Japan, where pari-mutuel betting is permitted on the races, but this was the first keirin medal by a Japanese cyclist.