Jason Kenny Wins SIXTH Gold Medal At Rio Olympics In Keirin

Equal to Sir Chris Hoy!
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Article originally published 16/08/2016: due to a technical issue this article may have resurfaced for some readers, and the original publish date may not have been visible.

Great Britain’s Jason Kenny has won a sixth Olympic gold medal - matching the record of cycling legend Sir Chris Hoy.

Taking the Olympic title in the keirin - which was delayed by two dramatic false starts - followed fiance Laura Trott winning her fourth gold just over an hour earlier.

If the pair were a country, they would be 13th in the Olympic medals table ahead of Spain having won five golds between them in Rio. 

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Jason Kenny and Laura Trott.
Eric Gaillard / Reuters

Kenny kept his cool to win his third gold of the Rio Games.

After Laura Trott won omnium gold for her fourth Olympic title, Becky James took silver and Katy Marchant bronze as Kristina Vogel of Germany won the sprint.

Kenny was in the final medal race on the track and survived a scare when the race was paused as officials studied footage to determine if had had illegally overtaken the motorised Derny bike before it had left the track.

The restart was also paused – with all six riders again starting – and at the third time of asking no-one could live with Kenny’s blistering pace.

The 28-year-old from Bolton emulated Sir Chris Hoy’s 2008 achievement of winning three titles at one Olympics to move level with the Scot as the Briton with the most Games golds.

Hoy won the Keirin at London 2012 before retiring. Kenny has two more Games in him.

Kenny’s gold was Britain’s 19th of the Rio Olympics – equalling the gold haul from Beijing – and the 49th British medal overall. The 48th medal, won by boxer Josh Buatsi, had minutes earlier taken Team GB past the previous best at an away Games.

Rio 2016 is officially Great Britain’s best overseas Olympics - surpassing the Beijing tally of 47 medals - with five days of action still to go.