Hoy back to gold standard

Sir Chris Hoy made a successful return to competitive cycling by winning his first British sprint title at 33.

The Scot added the national honour to the Olympic gold he won in the event last August by beating defending champion Matt Crampton in the final.

Hoy qualified for the event in a Manchester track record of 9.99 seconds over 200m, proving he has recovered from a serious hip injury.

"To do a 9.99 is great. I'm really pleased with that," said Hoy.

"We've had the world championships here three times and no-one's gone that fast," he said.

Hoy competed in an exhibition event in France in August but this was the first time he had turned a crank in anger since crashing at the Copenhagen leg of the Track World Cup in March.

He competes again at Manchester Velodrome next weekend, at the first World Cup event of the season.

606: DEBATE What to you make of Hoy's comeback?

The fall, caused when the French rider Kevin Sireau flicked out an elbow as Hoy tried to overtake him in the keirin final, meant he missed the chance to defend two of his titles at March's World Championships in Poland.

When his hip slammed against the track, it caused a degloving injury - where the skin gets separated from the underlying muscle - and he had to stay off his bike for more than 10 weeks.

Hoy's victory came in probably the most competitive sprint competition ever staged in the national championships.

As well as Crampton, four-time Olympic champion Hoy was up against Jason Kenny, the man he beat in the Beijing final, and Ross Edgar, also an Olympic silver medallist.

In the night's other events, Lizzie Armitstead won the women's scratch race while Geraint Thomas won the pursuit with a time of 4mins 18.418 sec which would have been enough to win a world championship in most years.

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