Jason Kenny becomes Britain's most successful Olympian with seventh gold medal
8 August 2021, 06:49 | Updated: 8 August 2021, 08:03
Jason Kenny has become Britain's most successful Olympian ever when he took his seventh gold medal in Tokyo.
The cyclist took the keirin final on Sunday with an excellent ride.
Kenny was already the most decorated British Olympian after he took silver as part of the team sprint on Tuesday.
But he has now solidified his place in sporting history with a seventh gold medal – moving him ahead of former teammate Sir Chris Hoy.
Kenny stunned in the men's keirin final in Izu.
He said: "Seven gold medals is really special, when you look back on the ones you have already got it seems pretty easy," he said.
"Then when you try and get more, you remember how hard it is."
Despite his talent and medal-hauling career, the result seemed far from certain ahead of the race.
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He had complained that he was out of form in the men's sprint during the week, but any concerns were dispelled as he took the win by a gap of 0.763 seconds.
Kenny had pulled away from the field to overcome second placed Azizulhasni Awang, from Malaysia.
He now has nine medals in total.
Kenny first took gold in the team sprint at the Beijing games in 2008, with Hoy and Jamie Staff.
He later won gold in the team sprint and individual sprint at London 2012.
Rio 2016 proved to be his most successful games for golds, with Kenny again triumphing in the team sprint, the individual sprint and now the keirin, bringing him level with Hoy.
On Sunday, he defended his keirin title and became Britain's most successful every Olympian.
Kenny is married to the most successful female athlete, Laura Kenny, who has five golds.
She said: "The amount of people who came up to me afterwards and were like 'I'd have counted him out of this' - and to be honest, so had I!" she told BBC Sport.
"I was speaking to him last night and he was like, 'I just want to go home'. Then obviously he won - just typical Jason, that."
This story is being updated
