The Official Website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic GamesAugust 8-24 2008
(BEIJING, August 19) -- Victoria Pendleton of Great Britain won her first career Olympic Games gold medal in the Women's Sprint on the final night of competition at the Laoshan Velodrome on Tuesday, August 19.
The three-time Women's Sprint world champion won two races in the final to relegate Anna Meares of Australia to silver.
Guo Shuang of China won twice easily against Willy Kanis of the Netherlands to take bronze and become the second Chinese racer to win a Track Cycling medal in Olympic history.
With former British Prime Minister Tony Blair watching on, Pendleton lived up to her pre-Games favorite status to win Great Britain's second Women's medal in Track Cycling in Olympic history.
Pendleton easily dispatched two-time world BMX champion Kanis in two semifinal races.
Meares and Guo had a heated battle in their semifinal.
The pair came to a stand-still in the first race, with Guo winning a close sprint, but Meares pushed it into the decider after winning the second race.
Guo's front tire slipped and she fell in the decider, prompting a restart. In the re-run, Guo won in a photo-finish, but was relegated for entering Meares's sprint lane.
In the sprint for fifth to eighth place, Clara Sanchez of France won ahead of Natallia Tsylinkskaya (Belarus), Jennie Reed (United States) and Simona Krupeckaite (Lithuania).
In the sprint for the ninth to 12th positions, Swetlana Grankowskaja (Russia) won ahead of Lisandra Guerra (Cuba), Yvonne Hijgenaar (Netherlands) and Sake Tsukuda (Japan).
