Sir Bradley Wiggins confirmed himself as the most decorated British Olympian of all time tonight after winning gold in the men’s team pursuit at Rio 2016.
Wiggins, alongside teammates Steven Burke, Ed Clancy and Owain Doull recorded their second world record of the day in the final as they came home in 3:50.265 to push Australia into second place.
Australia led for much of the race but the Team GB quartet reeled their 0.6 second lead back in and overtook the in the final 1000m to clinch gold.
The victory means Wiggins now stands alone as the only British athlete to win eight Olympic medals having claimed five gold, one silver and two bronze.
The win was Clancy’s third successive team pursuit Olympic gold and Burke’s second, while it’s a first for Olympic debutant Doull.
“It was a great final by all accounts. You get so wrapped up in it you never quite appreciate what’s going on and you’re just focused on what you've got to do in the race. You’re never aware of how close it is. It’s done now and it’s more relief than anything," said Wiggins.
“The first people I bumped into when I came off the track were Steve Redgrave and Chris Hoy. They’re my heroes in Olympic sport and just to be in the same breath as those guys is an honour really.
“It was more about what it meant personally to me. I remember being in Sydney and seeing him win there and I’d won bronze. I remember thinking if had to go to the job centre on Monday morning I could always say I’d got Olympic bronze. So to be here with five gold medals myself, I never imaged that for one minute. I wanted to go out like this."
Earlier in the session both Jason Kenny and Callum Skinner broke the men’s sprint Olympic record on their way to qualifying for the quarter-finals.
Both fresh from their team sprint triumph last night, Skinner was the first to go, breaking Kenny’s London 2012 time of 9.713 by 0.01 second before the four-time Olympic champion was quick to reclaim the accolade with 9.551.