Hoy won by the narrowest of margins as last-man-out Tournant failed to match his time by just 0.001 seconds.

"I was watching, but I couldn't really bear to because I saw that Arnaud was setting a pretty good time," said Hoy.

"It was pretty nerve-wracking stuff. It's unbelievable. This is my seventh world championships and my first individual medal.

"But all credit to Arnaud. I mean he's still an incredible rider who most people usually consider a machine, so to beat him is just incredible.

"He won three world titles last year, and not many people do that in one championships, and he's certainly not finished yet."

In the absence of injured Olympic champion Jason Queally, a gold medal for Briton looked an unlikely prospect at the outset.

But Commonwealth champion Hoy, a team-mate of Queally's in the British team sprint, set a superb time of 1:01.893.

That relegated Australia's Shane Kelly to second on the leaderboard, and of the five riders who followed only Tournant threatened to go faster.

But after leading at the halfway mark, the Frenchman slipped to 1:01.894 and ensured Britain took yet another gold medal at the 1km event.

"All that work to lose by a thousandth of a second," said Tournant's coach, Gerard Quintyn.

"But we've won quite a few titles over the years by thousandths of a second, so we can't complain."

A good night for Britain was completed when Tony Gibb followed up with silver in the 15km final.