SIR Chris Hoy has announced he and wife Sarra are to become parents for the first time.

But Britain's most successful ever Olympian has admitted he could only face the rigours of parenthood now he has retired. The six-times Olympic champion said: "Everybody I speak to, when I ask about them and their experiences about becoming a parent, they mention lack of sleep, which I'm not great with.

"I think maybe I'm just blindly optimistic that it's going to be great fun and dead easy. I'm sure it won't be, I'm sure there'll be lots of tough things but I'm just very excited."

Sir Chris made the announcement after meeting children in Malawi as part of a fundraising appeal to help children in Commonwealth countries out of poverty and encourage them to take up sport.

The Unicef appeal will feature in the Glasgow 2014 opening event.