Cycling: Kenny ends week of hard graft with gold

A blistering joint display of sprint power by Jason Kenny and Matt Crampton saw Great Britain claim gold and silver in the men's keirin at the yesterday's final night of racing in the European Track Championships.

Crampton led out the chase in the final lap, with Kenny tearing past his team-mate within sight of the finish to clinch the top two places on the podium for GB.

Kenny's well-calcualated triumph meant that the Bolton rider was the only participant to win a medal in all his events, taking gold in the keirin as well as bronze in the individual and team sprints. "I wasn't overly worried because I knew I could do it and get through, but it's important because this is my first triple in such a high-level competition," Kenny said.

"All week I got stuck in, I went in with the mentality that it would be quite hard, and I managed to get a few results along the way."

For his final challenge in the keirin, Kenny said he had a huge advantage in that he drew fourth place in the starting order, right behind Crampton, whom he had been "watching all week to see how he was racing."

A gold medallist with Sir Chris Hoy in the team sprint in Bejing 2008, as well as taking silver behind the Scot in the individual event, Kenny was cagey about his chances of emulating his team-mate in the Olympics and going for the triple gold himself in 2012.

His victory both ensures that Britain will be allowed to field another rider in the keirin for the world championships and also helped deflect attention from Victoria Pendleton's unsuccessful bid in her equivalent event. Shadowed closely by two French riders, the Olympic sprint gold medallist was unable to make her move until too late and she had to settle for fifth out of sixth.

Overall, Britain's haul of three golds, two silvers and two bronzes, put them comfortably at the top of the European Championships medal table.