Briton Pendleton wins sprint gold

Victoria Pendleton won Britain's sixth track cycling gold of the 2008 Olympics with victory over Australia's Anna Meares in the women's sprint final.

The 27-year-old was in a class of her own, winning the first two races of the best of three, with relative ease.

She led out in the first race before outsprinting her opponent and then gave Meares the chance to lead in the next but the result was even more emphatic.

China's Guo Shuang beat Netherlands' Willy Kanis to take bronze.

Pendleton said she was delighted to be part of the successful British cycling team at the Beijing Games.

"It hasn't sunk in yet. After the success of the team is it too much to ask if I don't get a medal? I'm so glad I'm part of it now."

The three-times world sprint champion then paid tribute to the team psychiatrist who lifted her spirits after she failed to win a medal at Athens 2004.

"Steve Peters started working with me in Athens and I feel completely different now," she added.

"I'm lucky to have so many good have people around me."

Pendleton, who studied at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle, first made her mark in cycling in 2001 when she won one bronze and three silver medals at the British National Track Championships.

There followed three fourth-placed finishes in sprint competitions - at the 2002 Commonwealth Games and the 2003 and 2004 World Championships.

Courtesy BBC NEWS