Hoy hopes to end cycling career with Glasgow gold

News Reporter

Wednesday 8 August 2012

SIR Chris Hoy is hoping for a "dream ending" to his cycling career at Glasgow's Commonwealth Games after becoming the most decorated British Olympian of all time.

LAP OF HONOUR: Sir Chris Hoy won his sixth gold medal yesterday. Pictures: Nick Ponty

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Helen McArdle

Hoy won the men's keirin event and was overcome with emotion after being given his sixth gold medal by former Scots Olympian Craig Reedie.

The win means Hoy has surpassed five-times goal medal-winning rower Sir Steve Redgrave's medals tally.

Hoy, 36, from Edinburgh, said: "I'm in shock. You try and compose yourself but it's surreal. I wanted to win gold in front of my home crowd. I saw everyone else stepping up to the plate and thankfully it worked out for me too."The keirin is a lottery and you never take anything for granted in it. I can't describe the feelings I have at the moment."This is enough for me, this is the perfect end to my Olympic career."I'm 99.9% sure I won't be competing in Rio – how can you top this? Glasgow is another question, as that would be the dream ending for me."When asked if he was likely to compete at Glasgow's Games, he said: "I hope so. That is the dream. The dream end is to finish in Glasgow."But I am taking nothing for granted. Cycling for two more years is easily said but you then realise you have to do 35 hours a week of training, and there are sacrifices you have to put in."We will wait and see. I am going to have a holiday, a decent couple of months off, reassess things and see where we are. It is a big ask."Hoy was watched by a crowd of 60,000, including Prince Harry and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.He raced ahead of his rivals in the final lap of the men's keirin at the Olympic velodrome to cross the finishing line a bike-length ahead of Germany's Maximilian Levy, who took silver.Unusually, the bronze medal was shared by Teun Mulder of the Netherlands and Simon van Velthooven of New Zealand after they crossed the line in a dead heat.It was Hoy's second gold medal of the Games, after he was part of a winning team sprint side last week.His parents, David and Carol, who waved a banner with the words "Chris Hoy, the real McCoy", were also tearful as they watched their son com-plete a lap of honour around the velodrome.David said: "I am just so proud of him on every level. I am going to start crying. You bottle everything up, all the emotion in long competitions and then it all comes out. I just couldn't be happier for him."Carol added: "I am over the moon, very much so."Fellow British cyclist Chris Boardman, who won a gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, said it had been a courageous ride.He said: "He held his line and didn't take his foot off the gas until the end. "With everything happening around you, you have to be confident to be able to push to the line like he did and he deserves all the accolades he's about to get."Will he ride in another Olympic games? Surely not, but after tonight I wouldn't put anything past him. It's special to win one gold medal but to win so many is an extra special thing."Sport Minister Shona Robison said: "Scottish athletes have now won seven golds at these Olympics and Sir Chris Hoy's triumph crowns an extremely long list of titles and world records."No-one representing Team GB has ever won six golds before, and we have never had a sportsman like him. What a hero and an inspiration."Hoy did not take up track racing until he was 18, when he joined the City of Edinburgh Racing Club.He has been a member of the Great Britain national squad since 1996, capturing the first major successes of his career with silver medals in the team sprint at the European and World Championships in 1999.He won his first Olympic medal – a silver – at the 2000 Sydney Games when Team GB finished second in the team sprint event. He went on to claim his first gold four years later by winning the kilometre time trial in Athens, before being propelled to fame with a hat-trick of gold medals in Beijing.l Team GB ended the day with their best Olympic medal haul since 1908, with a total standing at 48. Including 22 gold, British athletes have also won 13 silver medals and 13 bronze. The team are third in the medal table behind China and the USA.

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Hoy hopes to end cycling career with Glasgow gold

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