REED DENIES PENDLETON A PERFECT FINISH

• Sunday, 30 March 2008
• Lionel Birnie
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In the end there was no fairytale finish for Great Britain. Perhaps it was being greedy to expect a tenth gold medal.

Victoria Pendleton was edged into second place by USA's Jennie Reed in the final event of the World Track Championships, the women's Keirin.

It was a battling effort from Pendleton as she attempted to repeat the triple crown of team sprint, sprint and Keirin titles she won in Majorca last year.

But it was not to be and so Britain's medal total finishes at nine golds and two silvers from the 18 events in a phenomenal week of racing. They top the table by a mile and will go to Beijing for the Olympics this summer as the track team to beat.

So, Sunday was the day the gold rush dried up. Who, a few years ago, could have dreamed that Britain would be so dominant?

The last time the championships were held at Manchester, in 2000, British fans thought they'd witnessed a successful championships.

There was gold for Yvonne McGregor in the pursuit, silver for the team pursuiters and team sprint trio and bronze for Jason Queally in the kilo and Rob Hayles in the pursuit.

That was when the Lottery funding and Peter Keen's vision for the World Class Performance Plan was first felt. Eight years on Britain sits at the top of the tree.

Not only that, but Great Britain's class of 2008 must be considered the most successful track cycling team of all-time.

Bring on Beijing.

In the day's other events, Dutch riders Eleonora Van Dijk won the women's scratch race, Teun Mulder took the men's kilometre and Hayden Godfrey of New Zealand won the men's omnium.

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