Keirin, Men

Prior to the beginning of the Rio Games Jason Kenny would have been only one of the favourites for the keirin, alongside such riders as François Pervis and Joachim Eilers, but the events of the previous few days in the sprint, where Kenny had retained his Olympic title, had swung the odds firmly in the British rider’s favour. What should have been a strong French challenge from Pervis and teammate Michaël D’Almeida fizzled out early but both Kenny and Eilers clinched their expected places in the final.

The final was a logistical disaster. At the first attempt the race was halted when Kenny appeared to have overtaken the back wheel of the derny before it left the track but, after a delay of several minutes, he was allowed to continue in the event when video footage from a Team GB data analyst sitting in the stands was used to clear Kenny of any guilt. Amazingly no official camera was set up to judge this type of infraction. The second attempt saw an identical incident, and again the race was aborted with Eilers appearing to be the guilty party. Once again though it proved impossible to determine that any rule had been broken. By now the event was causing havoc with TV schedules and in Britain, where the exploits of Kenny and his fiancée Laura Trott were dominating newspaper front pages, the main evening news was delayed by 70 minutes to allow live coverage of the race.

Eventually, at the third attempt, the race was finally completed. Eilers and Damian Zieliński of Poland sprinted early and held a clear lead with a lap to go, but both faded and Kenny swooped around the outside to win his third gold medal of the 2016 Olympics and the sixth of his career. Matthijs Büchli of the Netherlands placed second while Mohd Azizulhasni Awang made a late lunge at the line to win Malaysia’s first ever Olympic cycling medal.

With six gold and a silver Kenny equalled exactly the tally of former teammate Chris Hoy and became the joint most successful British Olympian ever, at the age of only 28. His victory meant Great Britain had won three successive titles in the event each with a different rider.