Kappes/MacLean strike gold
Anthony Kappes and Craig MacLean won gold in a stunning all-British tandem sprint final on Sunday.
Last Updated: 02/09/12 4:48pm
Anthony Kappes and Craig MacLean won gold in a stunning all-British tandem sprint final on the final day of competition at the London 2012 velodrome.
Kappes, who is partially sighted, and his pilot MacLean claimed a 2-0 win in the best of three final against team-mates Neil Fachie and pilot Barney Storey on day four.
In the second bout, Kappes and MacLean accelerated to overtake their rivals with a lap and a half to go before swooping down to the racing line.
Storey and Fachie nearly lost control behind them and sat up, settling for silver.
It was a second successive tandem sprint gold for Kappes, who won the title alongside Storey in Beijing in 2008.
Britain won both golds in the tandem sprint events, after Fachie and Storey won the one-kilometre time-trial gold on Saturday
Kappes and MacLean did not finish that race due to mechanical trouble but Kappes was delighted with Sunday's gold.
Toughest
"It was brilliant, the atmosphere," he said, "and racing against Barney and Neil, it's pretty good."
Fachie said: "We know what each other can do. We knew it would be the toughest race we'd have and on the day they were better than us."
Darren Kenny, Rik Waddon and Jon-Allan Butterworth had to settle for silver in the mixed C1-5 team sprint, won by China in a world record of 49.454, with Britain second in 49.519.
It was Butterworth's third silver from three events, with two more races to come on the road at Brands Hatch next week.
Waddon told Channel 4: "We went faster than we did earlier on but you can't
control what anybody else does."
Butterworth added: "One of the goals coming into the Games was that I wanted to be part of the team sprint.
"I just wanted to be part of a team, having to rely on others. You're only as
fast as your weakest man. You need to be very good to get in the squad.
You can't be a good rider on your own, you have to be all good together. To be part of the team means a lot."
