Keirin gold for Pendleton
Victoria Pendleton rounded off a fantastic night for Team GB's cyclists by winning the women's Keirin.
Last Updated: 03/08/12 8:51pm
Victoria Pendleton claimed Great Britain's third gold medal in two days inside the Olympic Velodrome with a stunning triumph in the women's 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 again in stunning style.
In the event, which begins behind a motorised Derny bike, the 31-year-old stormed to victory ahead of China's Guo Shuang and Hong Kong's Lee Wai Sze.
The win was Britain's third success from four events and Pendleton's second gold after her Olympic sprint title in 2008. It continued an eventful final Games for the multiple world champion.
Along with Jess Varnish, Pendleton was eliminated from the two-woman, two-lap team sprint for a takeover infringement on day one of the track programme, leaving the duo in tears.
But Pendleton, who last won the keirin world title in 2007, responded in an event brought into the Games for the first time.
World champion Anna Meares made an early move as soon as the pace-setting bike went off the track, 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.
Focus proved key
Pendleton's focus must now turn to the individual sprint, which begins on Sunday and finishes on Tuesday's final day of the track programme, but immediately after the podium she told the BBC: "I can barely believe it right now.
"It was really hard before it 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.
Told she had produced the perfect tactical race, Pendleton added: "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."
Looking ahead
Pendleton immediately targeted another gold in Saturday's sprint.
"I'm really looking forward to the sprint," she said.
"I'm hoping my time trial will be a little bit more special than it's been over the last couple of years, I've been working on it a lot and I'm hoping that the sprint - I've got a good chance there.
"I've got to take confidence from this into tomorrow and come back with a vengeance."
