UCI Track Cycling World Championships 2011: Sir Chris Hoy's dilemma as Jason Kenny wins battle of Brits
The mountain Sir Chris Hoy must climb if he is to defend his Olympic sprint title next year became clear for all to see on Friday night but he still battled his way to a world championship bronze after losing to GB colleague Jason Kenny in the semi-finals
Dilemma: Sir Chris Hoy (left) lost out to Jason Kenny in the battle of the Brits on Friday night Photo: GETTY IMAGES
By Brendan Gallagher 10:36PM GMT 25 Mar 2011
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Kenny went on to win the silver medal behind France’s outstanding Grégory Baugé, who won his third consecutive title having been untroubled from start to finish in the competition. Kenny got closer than most, at least he was in same frame at the finish.
Hoy seemed to lack a little sharpness for much of the day but he kept plugging away and in the bronze medal ride-off came back from losing the first race against Mickael Bourgain to win the next two and celebrated his bronze with almost as much joy as he usually does a gold. The fighting spirit remains but there is work to do in this, the discipline he is least comfortable with.
Afterwards Hoy acknowledged he might have to consider whether it is possible to mount a defence of all three of his Olympic titles.
“It might come to a point where we have to prioritise, there is no way I would risk a gold medal for three silvers at London. My aim is to be an Olympic champion in London. I won’t enter any event in London if I don’t think I can do that but we are nowhere near that yet. Jason is the benchmark, he has given me something to aim at.
“Physically I am good, mentally I just didn’t commit properly, firstly when Jason went past me in the first race in our semi-final and then again in the first race against Bourgain. I was really pleased to finish a long day off with that medal, though.”
Kenny, meanwhile, can be pleased with his championship and particularly his semi-final win over Hoy.
In the first race he turned on the afterburners down the back straight to win in superb style and then, in a much closer second race, caught the Olympic champion right on the line to claim his third 2-0 victory over Hoy this season after victories in the National Championships and Manchester World Cup.
There were a couple of caveats in the minds of GB coaches about those first two defeats — Hoy had a touch of flu in the first and was possibly jet lagged in the second — but last night’s result was definitive. None of which should concern Kenny who showed three years ago in Beijing, when he won a silver behind Hoy, that he was the heir apparent.
Meanwhile, in the women’s sprint Victoria Pendleton, winner of the last four world individual sprint titles, qualified for today’s semi-final where she will meet old rival Anna Meares, who has won just about every honour except an individual sprint title.
Telegraph.feedsportal.com
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