Chris Hoy led GB to a glorious gold medal against arch rivals France today in the men’s sprint at the Beijing Olympics.

After much pre-race friction, the Brits, anchored by Hoy, proved to the French that they really were the best prepared team, winning by a narrow (but significant) margin of 0.523 seconds after 3 legs in a time of 43.128 seconds.

It was sweet revenge for GB after they lost out to their continental rivals in the World Championships this March in Manchester.

Jamie Staff got Britain off to the best possible start, then came the inexperienced Jason Kenny, the 20-year-old from Bolton, whose super-hot form ousted Scotland’s Ross Edgar at the eleventh hour to claim the middle-leg.

And of course there was Hoy, the hero, who edged ahead of his famous rival Arnaud Tournant to claim gold for GB, the first of three possible golds that the Edinburgh star is chasing.

In the first round the trio raced a record time of 42.950 seconds, the fastest in the competition.

Hoy, who also won gold in Athens fouryears ago in the now defunct kilo, will race in the keirin tomorrow and the men’s individual sprint on Sunday.  He is currently World Champion in both events.