Hoy completes perfect 10

Knight powers to keirin glory in Copenhagen

Hoy: 10th world title

The standard's going up and up all the time - it makes you work harder. There's no room for complacency, no room to relax or to expect the same performances without more work.

Sir Chris Hoy
Quotes of the week

Sir Chris Hoy produced a trademark power surge to secure his 10th rainbow jersey with victory in the keirin at the World Track Cycling Championships in Copenhagen.

The four-time Olympic champion powered across the line in customary fashion, breaking early after the derny motorbike left the track to win Great Britain's first gold of the championships - and second medal of the day after the women's team pursuit squad took silver.

It was a sweet moment for Hoy at the venue where he won his first world title in 2002 and suffered a serious hip injury on Valentine's Day in 2009.

Indeed, Hoy is competing in his first global competition since the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games where he won three gold medals after the hip problem - at one point thought to be career-threatening - ruled him out of the 2009 World Championships in Pruszkow, Poland.

The Scot claimed men's team sprint bronze alongside Jason Kenny and Ross Edgar on Wednesday after a broken pedal prior to the qualification ride hit his hopes, but he made amends a day later with a sensational win at the Ballerup Super Arena.

Hoy's former rival, friend and foe Arnaud Tournant of France won a record 14 World Championship gold medals and the 34-year-old, who celebrated his birthday on Tuesday, will have that target in his sights as the London 2012 Olympics approach.

Restart

The men's keirin final required a restart after Malaysia's Awang Azizulhasni was pushed off the track in the first attempt.

But, at the second time of asking, Hoy reclaimed the title from Maximilian Levy of Germany, who finished third.

Levy was positioned behind the derny and before it left the track, Hoy allowed a gap to build up between himself and the German.

Awang was on his tail but, with one-and-a-half laps to go, Hoy accelerated away from his rivals and won by half a wheel length from the Malaysian.

It was welcome relief for Hoy, who has endured a difficult two days.

First there was the broken pedal prior to the team sprint qualification ride and then in the keirin heat earlier on Thursday, Hoy found himself pushed to the track.

After one false start, Hoy was blocked by Malaysia's Josiah Ng Onn Lam before falling and taking out Holland's Roy van den Berg.

The race was stopped and Hoy had to have the cleat on his right shoe repaired. After a delay to allow Hoy and Van den Berg to remount their bikes, Ng was disqualified, having taken too direct a line off the track banking, causing the collision.

At the third time of asking, Hoy was unflustered and qualified with ease ahead of Australia's Shane Perkins. He stayed out of trouble in the second round to progress to the final and then emerged victorious.

Delighted

"I'm over the moon tonight," he said. "That was such a hard thing to do and also this was the venue of my first World Championships win so it's very special for me tonight.

"With the injury I sustained here at the World Cup it meant I was out of the World Championships (last year).

"It's lovely to be back here and back in the winning way again.

"The standard's going up and up all the time - it makes you work harder.

"There's no room for complacency, no room to relax or to expect the same performances without more work."