Pendleton storms to keirin gold
Victoria Pendleton celebrates after winning keirin gold on the line
Victoria Pendleton claimed Great Britain's third gold medal in two days of competition at the London 2012 Olympic velodrome with a stunning triumph in the keirin.
Moments after watching Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh and Steven Burke clock a world record three minutes 51.659 seconds to triumph by a supreme margin ahead of arch-rivals Australia, Pendleton delivered in her least favoured event.
In the event which begins behind a motorised Derny bike, the 31-year-old from Stotfold, who is set to retire after London 2012, stormed to victory. Guo Shuang of China was second, with Lee Wai Sze of Hong Kong third.
The win sparked jubilant scenes from coach Jan van Eijden, British Cycling performance director Dave Brailsford and head coach Shane Sutton and was Britain's third gold medal of the track programme after Sir Chris Hoy, Philip Hindes and Jason Kenny won the men's team sprint on day one.
It was Britain's third success from four events. Pendleton won the second gold after her Olympic sprint title in 2008 and continued an eventful final competition for the multiple world champion.
World champion Anna Meares made an early move as soon as the pace-setting bike went off, but Pendleton accelerated from one-and-a-half laps to go and took to the front before sensationally pulling away to claim her second Olympic gold. Meares, of Australia, was a distant fifth. Pendleton celebrated with her fiance Scott Gardner, a coach with British Cycling.
Pendleton said it was hard not to be distracted by the excitement British riders' success was causing in the velodrome.
"I can barely believe it right now," Pendleton told BBC1. "It was really hard with the excitement of the great job the girls did qualifying with a world record and then the guys smash the world record and win a gold medal - I was just, like, 'Focus, Vic, focus. You've still got a race'. But it was so hard. I can't believe it.
"Thank you so much to everyone who's helped me get here. The crowd have been fantastic and it really helped me."
Told she had produced the perfect tactical race, Pendleton said: "I think Jan [van Eijden, coach] might have something to say about that. But he said to me, 'Don't look for their race. Just make your own. When it's your moment, just go'. My legs were good from last night and I still wanted to really show what I've got and it worked out okay, I guess."
I would like to pay my utmost respects to ALL the ladies participating in the Olympic Games,each & everyone of you are fantastic to watch.
My 'favourite',is Jessica ENNIS,also Victoria Pendleton,all of you though,have aquitted yourselves with distinction,we can but hope that those younger than yourselve's will adopt you all as 'role models'.
You can lead a horse to water, but you'll not make him drink, however, I have watched intensely as Great Britain's Olympic participants have tried their hearts out to win for us all,
I now feel as though I owe them something, even though they don't know me, they have all done their very best to make me proud to be British, a humbling thought but a very true one.
Victoria Pendleton's win was poetry in motion, it was perfect, had the bike been a horse then she was Lester Piggott in a tight finish, she made it look oh so easy, yes it could have gone wrong, but she's a girl, a girl with a brain and the heart of a lion, it was magical to watch, and I'm now very glad that the olympics were held in this country, as history was made before my very eyes, and I was standing on the very same soil as what she achieved her win on, nope I wasn't at the games, I was miles away, no water separated me from her, we were both on the same island, Great Britain, a place that is magical and ancient, an island that we the British would all protect with our lives.
A good day for British sport, a good day to be British, and a magical moment that will be remembered forever by us all.
