Cycling News - Chris Hoy wins three gold medals at the National Track Championships in Manchester
Last updated 10/3/2011 12:24:32 PM
Cycling News - Chris Hoy wins three gold medals at the National Track Championships in Manchester
Those keen to write off Sir Chris Hoy for the London Olympic Games have had to have a rapid rethink after the Scot completed a hat trick of gold medals at the National Track Championships in Manchester.
Hoy, partnered by Jason Kenny and former Olympic champion Jason Queally, pushed Ross Edgar, Pete Mitchell and Dave Daniell into the silver medal place.
Hoy has all the hunger back after a year of injuries and said: "This is one of five events before the Olympics and I want to win them all."
Despite a crop of youngsters coming through the outstanding British development programme, the old boys have retained their edge with Hoy at 35 and Jason Queally 41. Queally's contribution to the victory means he is almost certain to be part of the GB team for the European Championships later this month.
The Staffordshire-born rider first came to prominence when he won the 1km trial in 2000 but after being left out of squad for Beijing in 2008 he announced his retirement.
Having revealed his intention to compete in the 2012 Paralympics as a tandem pilot, Queally was then asked to rejoin the able-bodied squad and won the European team pursuit endurance event last year. His display in the team sprint could install him as the final part of the jigsaw that GB have been missing since the retirement of Jamie Staff last year.
Three-time Olympic champion Hoy said: "My performances have been better than I expected bearing in mind that none of us are really fresh, we have a couple of weeks to the Europeans where we will be looking to progress and again you would expect the performances to improve so it's a really good starting point.
"The Championships have been at the top end of my expectations. In terms of the overall plan this is right up there with as good as I could have expected."
Becky James took gold in the women's keirin race, adding to her victory in the sprint event on Friday.
After her second success of the week James said: "Today I had my head screwed on, I kept my gap and no one wanted to come round so I kept watching and then with a lap and a half to go I just hit it hard and controlled the pace."