Hoy claims third title of competition

Published on Saturday 24 October 2009 19:50

CHRIS Hoy landed his third British title of the week when he won the Keirin at the National Track Championships last night.

The 33-year-old, who had already shown he'd recovered from injury by securing the individual and team sprint gold medals, progressed easily through the opening two rounds to book his place in the final.

And he made no mistake in the decisive ride, dropping in behind the pacer's bike and attacking when it pulled off the track with two and a half laps left to race.

However, the battle for second place allowed the pursuers to trim the gap on the Olympic champion and he just held off a late surge by Jason Kenny to clinch the win in Manchester.

Hoy made an imperious return to competitive cycling on Thursday as he won his first British sprint title. The Scot added the national honour to the Olympic gold he won in the event last August by dismissing fellow Scot Ross Edgar in the semi-final before beating defending champion Matt Crampton 2-0 in the final.

That victory, together with a track record of 9.99 seconds in the 200 metres that make up the sprint's qualifying round, suggests Hoy's absence from competition has in no way dulled his ability.

"To do a 9.99 is great – we've had the world championships here three times and no-one's gone that fast," he said. "A track record, a championship record, my second fastest ever time. I'm really pleased with that."

The Scot followed up the win on Friday with the team sprint title along with Jamie Staff and Ross Edgar in Team Sky+HD colours.

Meanwhile, Hoy's fellow Scot Charline Joiner finished just outside the medals last night in the women's event which was won by world champion Victoria Pendleton.

Previously Lizzie Armitstead had won her second title in two days with victory in the women's points race on Friday night. The 20-year-old from Otley demonstrated her form before this week's World Cup at the same venue, adding the points title to her scratch win on Thursday.

In the men's points race, Olympic bronze medal winner Chris Newton (Rapha Condor) triumphed. Like Armistead, he also won his scratch race.