British cycling may have witnessed a changing of the guard when Sir Chris Hoy was beaten by fellow Briton Jason Kenny in the men's sprint semi-finals at the 2011 World Championships.

Kenny is 12 years Hoy's junior and was long viewed as the heir-apparent to the great Scot.

Aged 18, Kenny served notice of his huge potential with three golds at the European Junior Track Championships - a feat he repeated by taking three golds at the World Junior Track Championships in the same year.

His rapid rise from up-and-coming junior to established senior was complete when he impressed at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, helping the sprint squad win gold and earning a silver medal behind Hoy in the individual sprint.

A short time after the Olympics, Kenny, a member of Sky Track Cycling, was back in the saddle at the Manchester World Cup, winning the sprint and team sprint. In 2009, he took silver in the team sprint at the World Championships and he followed that up with a bronze at the same event a year later.

There was further success in 2010, with Kenny bagging a gold and two bronze medals at the European Championships and, in 2011, he was back atop the rostrum at the World Championships - scooping silver in the sprint and bronze in the team sprint.

Kenny won the nod over Hoy to take the sole place in the GB team at London 2012 and he delivered in the sprint, beating the great Gregory Bauge of France 2-0 to claim gold - which was his second medal of the Games after the victory in the team sprint.

Career high
Beating Gregory Bauge to sprint victory at London 2012, taking his Olympic gold haul to three.

Career low
After beating Hoy at the 2011 World Championships, Kenny came up against France's Gregory Bauge, who looked in a class of his own as he easily held off the Brit in the final

Quotes
"I'm pleased with the competition in general, it's my best result at world championships. Since Beijing I seemed to be finishing top five and six, never stepping up. There's not really an order within the team, it's chopping and changing." Jason Kenny, March 2011

Trivia
In the 2009 New Year Honours, Kenny was awarded an MBE for his services to sport