Sir Jason Kenny has announced his retirement from cycling in order to move into coaching.
The 33-year-old departs from competition as Britain’s most successful Olympian after winning his seventh gold medal in Tokyo last summer.
Kenny had already become the most decorated with his team sprint silver earlier in the Games, but stole the show with a stunning ride in the final of the keirin.
Here, the PA news agency looks at Kenny’s seven Olympic golds.
Team Sprint – Beijing 2008
Kenny made his Olympic debut in 2008 on the back of a fifth-placed finish at the preceding World Championships in Varese, Italy. Chris Hoy, Kenny and Jamie Staff had been beaten by the French in the World Cup in Manchester a few months earlier but fortunes flipped in Beijing and the British trio took victory by more than half a second. Kenny had to accept silver behind Hoy in the individual event, however.
Team Sprint – London 2012
Hoy and Kenny were back in action together in London, this time joined by Phil Hindes. They broke the world record in both the first round and the final to take gold with a time of 42.6 seconds, with France once again settling for silver. There was a degree of controversy over the event, however, with Hindes appearing to admit he deliberately crashed to force a restart after getting away slowly during qualifying.
Individual Sprint – London 2012
Teams were only allowed to enter one rider in the individual sprint in London and though Hoy had taken gold in Beijing, it was his younger team-mate who got the nod on home turf based on his superior results at the preceding World Championships. Kenny delivered, breaking Hoy’s Olympic record to qualify fastest in a time of 9.713 before beating France’s four-time world champion Gregory Bauge 2-0 in the final. It was the first time Kenny had beaten Bauge head to head.
Team Sprint – Rio 2016
With Hoy having retired, Callum Skinner joined Kenny and Hindes in the team sprint and there was no let up as they set an Olympic record in qualifying. New Zealand went even faster during the first round to keep them on their toes, but the British trio responded in the gold medal race, winning in a record time of 42.440 seconds.
Individual Sprint – Rio 2016
Britain were back to two riders in the individual competition as the rules changed again in 2016, with Kenny and Skinner in the mix. Bauge and Denis Dmitriev had been dominating individual sprints since London with Kenny quiet until he beat Australian Matthew Glaetzer to gold in the 2016 World Championships. It was clear he had peaked at the right time as he broke his own Olympic record to top qualifying ahead of Skinner – who he eventually beat to gold in the final.
Keirin – Rio 2016
Kenny completed a clean sweep of the sprint events with victory in the keirin. Kenny survived a possible disqualification after he and Malaysian Azizulhasni Awang passed the motorised derny too soon but judges settled on a restart – and Kenny beat Matthijs Buchli to the line in the final. Victory moved him level with Hoy on a record six gold medals.
Keirin – Tokyo 2020
Kenny became the first Briton to win seven Olympic gold medals as he took a stunning victory in the men’s keirin final in Izu. He had complained of being out of form during the men’s sprint earlier in the week but you would not have known it from the way in which he rode away from the field to win by a yawning gap of 0.763 seconds from Awang.
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