Hoy suffers shock track defeat by tenacious teenager

Quadruple Olympic gold medallist Chris Hoy suffered what he called a "stupid" defeat at the European track championships on Saturday after blowing a huge lead against a teenager with the slowest qualifying time.

Britain’s Hoy was comfortably ahead in the first round of the individual sprint only for 18-year-old Irishman Felix English to take him and everyone watching by surprise with a late surge to the line.

Hoy denied making a tactical error while Britain’s sprint coach Iain Dyer said the defeat was not down to complacency but something clearly went wrong for the man who has dominated sprint racing for the last three years.

“It wasn’t a tactical error, it was something stupid and I hope it never happens again,” Hoy told reporters. “It’ll take me a good couple of days to get my head round it.”

In the qualifying time trial for the sprint Hoy had been the fastest of the field, with English the slowest of the 24 riders to make it into the final rounds.

“When you’re up against an opponent who’s been a second slower, 99 times out of 100 you know it’ll be straightforward,” Hoy said.

“You try to win the first round losing as little energy as possible and if you win by 50 metres it’s a bit disrespectful, so I went to the front and put in a jump at 85% (of my strength).

“I opened up a big gap but then I heard him coming up behind me.”

Coach Dyer said he could only put the defeat down to the rider thinking he had already done enough to secure the win.

“Chris wasn’t over-confident or complacent and there’s no doubt he was in great shape,” Dyer told Reuters. “When Chris jumped he established a massive lead, and I can only assume he thought it was job done.”

Hoy’s surprise elimination came a day after a minor error by the Scotsman in the men’s team sprint knocked the British out of the battle for gold and silver. Britain eventually sealed bronze in the playoffs against Poland.