But the 31-year-old golden girl of British cycling (pictured top, leading) immediately reasserted her intention to retire from the sport "in two days' time".

There would be no second thoughts, she said, adding: "It's not even going to be a [Sir Steve] Redgrave situation", in an apparent allusion to the way in which the durable British rowing star returned to win a fifth Olympic gold medal after stating, in the wake of winning his fourth, that anyone who found him close to a rowing boat again could shoot him.

Her narrow victory, by about a quarter of a wheel width over the Chinese rider Shuang Guo, put the finishing touch to a dream second night in the Velodrome for Britain.

First the women's team pursuit trio emulated the men's quartet the previous evening by setting a new world record time of 3min 15.669sec in qualifying.

Then the men's pursuiters – Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Steven Burke and Peter Kennaugh – broke the world record yet again in winning their gold medal match over the Australians, clocking 3:51.659 for the 4,000 metres, an average speed of more than 62km/h.

Victoria Pendleton celebrates her gold medal ride in the keirin

In doing so Kennaugh became the first Isle of Man-born athlete to win Olympic gold for a century, pipping a certain Mark Cavendish to the honour.

The only previous Manxman to win an Olympic gold medal was rower Sidney Swann, a member of Britain's eight that triumphed in Stockholm in 1912.

Swann later become Chaplain to King George VI, the Queen's father. 

After being knocked out of gold medal contention with team-mate Jess Varnish in the women's sprint last night, when they were adjudged to have executed an incorrect changeover, Pendleton was under intense pressure to deliver a better result today, in front of the usual noisy and partisan crowd.

This included Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, who was returning to his old stomping ground of track cycling in the guise of spectator, having swapped his yellow jersey for a Fred Perry sports shirt.

Pendleton started well, getting the better of her old rival, Australia's Anna Meares, in this eccentric sprint format, which starts with the riders following a moped, or derny, ridden by a man dressed like a member of the French highway patrol circa 1950.

This continues for around five-and-a-half laps of the track before the riders explode into action over the remaining distance.

The home favourite won her second-round race too, pouncing early and showing enough sustained speed to hold off Guo and France's Clara Sanchez.

In the final, she again hit the front early, but, while Meares was beaten, this time Guo, a silver medallist in the team sprint, was much closer behind.

Centimetre by centimetre, the Chinese rider chipped away at Pendleton's advantage.

But the British rider remained strong in the last keirin of her career and still held a clear if diminishing lead as the field flashed cross the finishing line for the second Olympic gold medal of her career, adding to the sprint title she won in Beijing four years ago.

Pursuiter Peter Kennaugh (front) is the first Isle of Man-born Olympic gold medallist in a century

A delighted Wai Sze Lee of Hong Kong came through to claim the bronze medal ahead of Sanchez.

"I didn't want to be stuck behind one of these girls; it was definitely a day to take it on," Pendleton said afterwards, explaining her tactics.

The win had "definitely" made up for the disappointment of the previous night, when she had left the arena to have "a cuddle of my baby nephew, Nathan.

"That put things in perspective."

When he gets older, she continued, "I will tell him he made everything seem alright last night."

She said she had taken great encouragement from today's victory in the women's double sculls at Eton Dorney by Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins.

About a year ago, Pendleton said, she had suggested London 2012 would be "an Olympics for the girls.

"I'm glad it's going to be.

"Here come the girls!"

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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