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Home support propels Hoy to keirin gold

Sir Chris Hoy thanked the crowd for his victory © Getty Images

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• Profile: Chris Hoy | Victoria Pendleton

Sir Chris Hoy got his first taste of gold medal success at the Olympic Velodrome on Saturday - as he won the keirin at the Track World Cup.

The Scot, 35, showed his class in an event that is quickly becoming his most dominant - surging around Germany's Rene Enders and France's Mickael Bourgain in a blistering last lap to claim victory on the line.

"I made it very hard for myself there. I sat behind Mickael Bourgain from France and I knew that he was going very well today, he had some very impressive performances earlier on, so I was confident he was going to close the gap on the leaders, and I was going to try and come around him, but he left it pretty late," Hoy told the BBC.

"With half a lap to go I wasn't sure if I was going to make it, but the crowd, the noise they make when they see you making a move is unbelievable.

"That feeling crossing the line, it's the World Cup, a big event but not a massive event, but it feels like a World Championships or even Olympic Games with the support we get here, it's unbelievable."

Hoy will be hoping to add another gold in the individual sprint on Sunday - before returning to the arena for London 2012 where he will hope to add to his four career Olympic titles.

In the women's sprint, there was disappointment for Victoria Pendleton as she was forced to settle for fourth.

Having knocked out team-mate Jess Varnish in the second round of the knockout phase, Pendleton was beaten 2-1 by Australian rival Anna Meares in the best-of-three semi-final.

That put her in a bronze medal shootout against China's Guo Shuang, but the Brit, perhaps fatigued by her doomed efforts against Meares, was unable to win a leg as she succumbed to a 2-0 defeat.

There was a gold medal success to cheer in the women's individual pursuit, however, as Joanna Rowsell defeated New Zealand's Alison Shanks to claim victory in the 3,000m race.

Rowsell burst out into an early lead, before Shanks began reeling her rival in over the middle phase of the race. Rowsell responded to the challenge, however - bursting away in the closing stages to eventually win by over a second.

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