Pendleton on track for another cycling gold
Victoria Pendleton makes her final appearance in competitive cycling on the last day of action from the velodrome, as Britain looks to make London 2012 its most successful Olympics since 1908.
Hundreds of thousands of fans will be hoping British victories in the triathlon, dressage and cycling will boost Team GB’s gold medal haul past the 19 achieved in Beijing four years ago.
It comes after the British showjumping team leapt to gold in a jump-off yesterday and cyclist Jason Kenny rode to victory in the final of the men’s sprint.
On the last day of action in the Olympic velodrome, a trio of Britons are going for gold as Team GB stands third overall with 40 medals – 18 gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze – behind the powerhouses of China and the US.
Track queen Victoria Pendleton bows out from the sport on Tuesday with a sprint finish as she bids to become Britain’s most decorated female Olympian.
With one gold before the Games began, the 31-year-old from Stotfold, Bedfordshire, took the keirin title on Friday and is looking for a third in the sprint tonight to go one better than the likes of Dame Kelly Holmes and Rebecca Adlington before retiring.
Five-time Olympic champion Sir Chris Hoy will also be hoping to make it six in the keirin, an event which to many is something of a lottery but appears almost a formality for the Scot.
Hat-trick Hoy
Sir Chris first became Olympic champion in Athens in 2004, with victory in the 1km time-trial, before claiming a hat-trick of victories in Beijing and the team sprint title on Thursday.
And 20-year-old world champion Laura Trott is top of the standings going into the final day of the omnium.
Elsewhere, fans will see brothers Alistair and Jonny Brownlee start as hot favourites for gold and silver in the triathlon as they swim, bike and run around Hyde Park and some of London’s iconic sights.
Reigning world champion Alistair, from Horsforth, West Yorkshire, went into the Games as one of the host nation’s best hopes for gold after dominating his sport for the last three years.
Carl Hester, the 45-year-old stalwart of British dressage, is aiming for a career-crowning ride in his fourth Olympics as he goes for a team medal alongside Charlotte Dujardin and Laura Bechtolsheimer.
The Britons lead the team event, having never previously won an Olympic dressage medal.
Discus final
In the Olympic Stadium, 20-year-old former rugby player Lawrence Okoye, who has deferred a place at Oxford to study law to concentrate on athletics, will go for gold in the discus after producing a throw of 65.28 metres to go through to the final automatically.
Phillips Idowu, the so-called “Invisible Man” of British athletics, who only arrived in the village at the weekend, will also finally be seen as he tries to jump 17.10m to qualify automatically for Thursday’s final.
The 33-year-old Beijing silver medallist has competed just three times this year and has pulled out of various meetings, most notably the Olympic trials at the last minute and the London Grand Prix just 25 minutes before the triple jump was due to start.
On Monday, Nick Skelton, Ben Maher, Scott Brash and Peter Charles leapt to Britain’s first team gold in showjumping for 60 years.
Veteran rider Skelton said winning the gold in front of a packed crowd in Greenwich was “a dream come true”.
“It’s great for the country and great for our sport,” he said.
Skelton, 54, who rode a flawless round in the jump-off, won despite having a hip replacement last year.
And 24-year-old Kenny, who was selected for the cycling sprint over Sir Chris, has now won two golds in the London Games to add to one from Beijing.