Jason Kenny won gold in the Men's Keirin in the final track cycling event of Rio 2016 as he reigned victorious in what was a hugely tense race inside the Velodrome. 

The British rider overcame two race restarts where he faced a potential disqualification to become GB's joint most successful Olympian beside Sir Chris Hoy on seven gold medals. 

Kenny had a brilliant final bend as he was able to overcome the tension to complete a hugely rewarding night for Britain's cyclists as his fiance Laura Trott won gold once again, before Becky James and Katy Marchant won silver and bronze respectively in the women's sprint. 

Equalling Sir Chris Hoy

The 28 year old was able to seal a magnificent achievement as he won his third gold medal of the Rio Olympics, and his sixth overall, after victories in the team and individual sprints at Beijing, London and now Rio. 

Kenny has all but submitted his place as a British sporting hero, as his Keirin win ensured he equaled the legendary Hoy at the top of GB's medal successors at the Summer Olympics. In the process he also overtook fellow cyclist Sir Bradley Wiggins who sits on five golds. 

Threat of disqualification

Kenny's win didn't come without tension and drama though, as he had to go through the ordeal of a threat of a disqualification alongside eventual bronze medallist Azizulhasni Awang of Malaysia. 

With the derny bike coming off the track it had originally looked as though the Brit had overtaken the pacemaker meaning he faced the threat of being disqualified from proceedings.

However after a long and tense break where the judges looked to see what had happened, they came to the conclusion that it was perhaps too much of a grey area to actually disqualify one of the riders, and they were all allowed to race again in the restart. 

Kenny celebrates his sixth Olympic gold medal after winning the Keirin.
Kenny celebrates his sixth Olympic gold medal after winning the Keirin.

Extraordinary race restart

Quite ridiculously the same thing happened again after the restart. As the riders geared up to start the sprint again with two and a half laps left, German World Champion Joachim Eilers appeared to have overtaken the derny bike as he lead the pack at the top of the track.

Once again though the judges determined that all riders would be allowed to race again, meaning Eilers wasn't disqualified as the derny bike appeared to have some sort of problem in leaving the track at the right time. Nonetheless the race was able to continue again.

The golden moment

It was safe to say that Kenny's sixth golden triumph at an Olympic games was well worth the wait, even if the drama did create suspense that every British fan would have liked to have dealt without. 

Upon the second restart, the race was absolutely terrific. Awang sat in behind the derny rider whilst Kenny, as he had done in the previous two attempts at the race, sat in third before the sprint finally happened. 

With three laps to go, Kenny moved himself up into second ready to make a charge for the rest of the race. As the derny bike went in Meilers lead the race, before Polish rider Damian Zielinski came round the outside of the Brit.

Kenny had a brilliant final lap though as he made a fantastic sprint to catch up to the Pole and then Eilers before coming round the outside of the German rider on the home stretch to take a brilliant gold medal on the line.

None of the men he overtook on that final stretch though won a medal in what was an incredibly tight finish as Matthijs Buchli of the Netherlands won silver and Awang took bronze. 

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About the author
Matt Dawson
Sports journalist at the University of Huddersfield. Cover Arsenal and the WSL.