Sir Chris Hoy wins fourth keirin world title with last-bend surge Sir Chris Hoy, centre, wins the keirin gold medal at the world championships in a photo finish with Maximilian Levy, right. Photograph: Mark Gunter/AFP/Getty Images There may be doubts about whether Sir Chris Hoy will defend his match sprint title at the London Olympics but few such questions are being asked about the keirin. The Scot's victory in the London test event in the motor-paced sprint was one of the highlights in February and here he backed that performance up with his fourth world title in six years. Given that he came late to the discipline, it is a record that speaks volumes for his competitive nature and ability to learn relatively late in his athletic career. It took Great Britain's gold medal tally to six, five of them in the 10 Olympic events and it signed off the team's campaign in Olympic events in the grandest style. This was Hoy's 11th world title, taken in the most astounding fashion. In the final banking, Hoy, riding in third would have been expected to go the long way round over the top, but instead dived through a minute gap between Maximilian Levy on his left and the New Zealander Simon van Velthooven to his right. He nudged Van Velthooven slightly, just enough to give him space to emerge and blast down the finish straight to win from Levy. It all happened in a fraction of a second at a speed approaching 50mph, the perfect expression of the blend of courage, incisiveness and speed that makes Hoy such a supreme competitor. Van Velthooven was subsequently relegated and Jason Kenny was awarded the bronze. Since he won his first world title in the discipline in 2007 this has turned into Hoy's banker. Although more attention is given to his performances in the match sprint, due to its prestige and history, he has built the most impressive record of any rider on the circuit, winning the world title in 2007, 2008 and 2010, taking the Olympic title in 2008, and riding to silver in the 2011 world championship. The only year in which he has not managed a medal recently was 2009, when he did not contest the world title due to a heavy crash in the event in the Copenhagen World Cup. Here, Hoy was the most impressive of the three British entrants. Although Matt Crampton - the European champion - and Kenny won through to the second round, they did so only by fighting back in the repechage having failed to win their first-round heats, with only the first across the line guaranteed a place in round two. Hoy, on the other hand, was blessed with a relatively low-key opposition in his heat and won convincingly. In the second round, the three Britons were all in the same heat, but it worked out well for both Hoy and Kenny. The wind-up to the line started late, which did not favour Crampton - he prefers a longer, faster finish - and Hoy found the right wheel to follow, that of the Spaniard Hodei Mazquiaran. He found his way to the front a lap and a half out, and hit the turbo just after the bell. It was the kind of unimpeded finish in which he is virtually unbeatable. Kenny won through as well, surging rapidly to take third.