Sir Chris Hoy was crowned world champion for a 10th time on this day in 2010 after winning the men’s keirin at the Track World Cycling Championships in Copenhagen.
The then 34-year-old made it to the final despite crashing in his heat and then edged out Malaysia’s Azizulhasni Awang on the finish line to claim his second medal of the championships.
Hoy had already won bronze in the team sprint at the Ballerup Super Arena as he competed in his first major global event since winning three gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
The success in Copenhagen marked a successful comeback after Hoy suffered a serious hip injury in a crash the previous year.
However, it was not all plain sailing for the Scot – after one false start in the heat, he was then blocked by Josiah Ng Onn Lam which led to him falling and taking out another rider, causing the race to stop.
Hoy said: “I certainly didn’t enjoy being dumped on my backside in the first round, that was out of order.
“I was annoyed but thankfully I wasn’t hurt and got back on the bike.”
Hoy took his haul of world titles to 11 with another keirin victory in Melbourne in 2012 and later that year became Britain’s most successful Olympian in terms of gold medals won at the time.
At London 2012, he won the team sprint and keirin to take his tally to six Olympic gold medals, surpassing the five won by rower Sir Steve Redgrave.
Hoy’s Olympic record has since been eclipsed by Jason Kenny, who won his seventh gold medal when defending his keirin title at Tokyo 2020.
