Jason Kenny won his record-equalling sixth Olympic Games gold medal while fiancée Laura Trott again became the most successful female British Olympian on a memorable final night in the Rio velodrome. Kenny took his third gold of the Games in the final event, matching the gold medal haul of Sir Chris Hoy and mirroring the Scot's triple-gold feat of Beijing 2008. Trott watched on tearfully from the track centre having earlier picked up her fourth individual gold with an unbeatable performance in the omnium, which she won by 24 points. Becky James and Katy Marchant also took their place on the podium, winning silver and bronze respectively in the individual sprint to take GB's medal tally on the track to 11 from nine events. It is the second consecutive Games in which Kenny and Trott have come away with multiple gold medals, with Trott backing up her team pursuit and omnium title. "What I did at London 2012 was incredible and I was so so proud. So to come back and to it again is unbelievable," Trott said.
She finished first or second in each of the first five races and then expertly marked her nearest rivals, Sarah Hammer (USA) and Jolien D'Hoore (Belgium), in the final points race to secure the win. “For the points race I felt really nervous. I thought they would attack me like you wouldn’t believe. I’ve done so much work for that race with Paul Manning and it’s really paid off," Trott explained. Kenny's route to victory in the final was slightly more tense, with the race restarted twice due to riders overtaking the derny bike too early. Commissaires decided not to penalise any riders, with Kenny possibly in danger of disqualification after the first stoppage. Finally, when the race got underway for real, Kenny bided his time to hit the front on the last lap and hold off Mattijs Buchli (Netherlands) and Azizulhansi Awang (Malaysia) to the line.
“I wasn’t thinking about being disqualified," Kenny admitted. "I knew it was really tight and usually when they shoot the gun it means that someone’s been disqualified. "It was really tight between me and Awang, and [Germany's Joachim] Eilers wasn’t far behind either. "Ultimately it was the right decision. It was ridiculously tight and that rule is a bit vague. I think the race broadly played out very similarly all three times. I’m happy everyone got to the start line and we put a good race on." But the night wasn't all about Kenny and Trott, with James and Marchant taking silver and bronze in the sprint, ensuring that every member of the team who took to the track came away with a medal. James reached the final by beating Elis Ligtlee (Netherlands), the rider who beat her in the keirin final, by two races to nil, but lost out to Kristina Vogel (Germany) in the final. Vogel had previously beaten Marchant in the semi-final, but the Brit bounced back to win over Ligtlee in the battle for bronze.