Sir Chris Hoy’s wife gives birth ten weeks early

Sir Chris said wife Sarra was also going well. Picture: Getty

Cyclist Sir Chris said he was “amazed, delighted and a little shocked” after the birth of Callum two months ahead of his due date.

Tiny Callum David Robert Hoy was born at 2pm yesterday at 29 weeks. His arrival was announced to the world hours later on Twitter and Sir Chris said that the baby and his mother were both doing well.

• Keep up to date with all aspects of Scottish life with The Scotsman iPhone app, completely free to download and use.

The six-time Olympic champion, who retired last year, thanked medical staff for their “incredible” help.

He tweeted: “Amazed, delighted & a little shocked to announce the birth of our beautiful baby son, Callum David Robert Hoy! Born at 29 weeks, today at 2pm.”

Moments later, he shared a picture of tiny Callum’s hand clutching his finger and added: “Although v. early days for wee Callum, he’s doing well as is Sarra. Huge thanks to incredible medical staff.”

The former cyclist was flooded with messages congratulating him and his family.

Fellow team GB Olympic gold-medallist Rebecca Adlington tweeted: “Congratulations to you both!

“Hope Sarra is going well as well as baby Callum! Xx”

His sister, Carrie, also welcomed the news and posted: “So happy and excited to be an auntie!!”

Sir Chris thanked everyone for their support and said: “Wow! Thanks for the huge load of messages coming in, I’m reading as many of them as I can to Sarra and Callum.”

He had previously spoken of his excitement about becoming a father for the first time. “I think maybe I’m just blindly optimistic that it’s going to be great fun and dead easy.

“It’s a very exciting period of my life and for me and Sarra, hopefully a wonderful experience.”

Sir Chris had also spoken about how he hoped to do as good a job as his own father, David.

“My father set a high bar,” he said. “There’s nothing I’d change in my childhood.

“I remember the early days when I started racing BMX. I’d come home from school on a Friday, then my dad and I would set off to places as far away as the south coast of England.

“It was a massive sacrifice, not just the financial outlay but time away from things he would want to do.”