Jason Kenny matches Sir Chris Hoy's British record of six Olympic golds with keirin success

Jason Kenny has equalled Sir Chris Hoy's formidable haul of six gold medals and is now Great Britain's joint-most decorated Olympian of all time. The underrated and reserved Bolton cyclist sealed such a tremendous achievement by eventually winning a somewhat farcical men's keirin final in Rio after initial fears that his dream might be cruelly ended by a disqualification.

Kenny and Malaysia's Azizulhasni Awang faced an anxious wait to see if they would be permitted to join the restart after appearing to marginally overtake the derny before it left the track. The two riders were handed a reprieve after lengthy deliberations, while Germany's Joachim Eilers also avoided being banished after clearly edging ahead of the motorised bike.

After repeated delays not normally witnessed during the keirin, there were thankfully no such infringements at the third time of asking. Kenny conserved his energy nicely and produced a blistering final lap to take victory ahead of Dutchman Matthijs Buchli and two-time World Championship silver medallist Awang.

"I turned up in a funny mood, I was happy, I don't know what was wrong today," he told the BBC after enduring that the cycling programme ended with yet more success for Team GB. "It felt like a dream. I was so tired I was floating through it. It was brilliant. It is pretty mental (matching Sir Chris Hoy). I was there in Beijing and knew it was special and as the years have gone by I appreciated how amazing he was then and to do same it is amazing."

Kenny's triumph came hot on the heels of fiance Laura Trott becoming the first British female athlete to scoop four Olympic gold medals with a dominant performance in the finale to the women's six-discipline omnium event. Team GB simply dominated proceedings at the Velodrome in Rio, winning a total of 11 medals from the 10 events. That is nine more than their nearest challengers from the Netherlands and Germany.