jts1882
Dean Richards
Anyone else seen this?
So the man who was stripped of the 2011 world championships for doping offences is questioning the legitimacy of the British team's success.
Jason Kenny wins gold in men's sprint as rival Grégory Baugé questions Team GB's success at London 2012 Games
Grégory Baugé could not beat Jason Kenny in the sprint so he tried to defeat him in the press conference, turning journalist to demand why Britain are so indomitable in the Olympic Velodrome.
By Paul Hayward, Olympic Velodrome
10:30PM BST 06 Aug 2012
Kenny had just won his third Olympic gold with a masterful 2-0 win in the best-of-three final to take British cycling’s track medal tally to six, with five golds. Baugé wore a smile throughout the interrogation but there were hints of bafflement and bitterness that Kenny may be angry about when he reviews what happened following the medal ceremony.
It started as knockabout, but Baugé, the silver medallist and three-time world champion, was persistent in asking why the British team always peak at the Olympics. He asked the moderator’s permission to put questions to the champion.
First: “You prepared for four years for today, so how did you prepare?”
Kenny laughed and summarised his answer as: “The Olympics is our main goal.” Reporters took over but soon Baugé was back in charge of the interviewing.
Through a translator he said: “So if I understand you well, during the next four years you’ll relax, and when it comes to Rio you’ll be on top again, right?”
Kenny said: “Not at all. The Olympics is the main one. I still want to win world championships. They still mean a lot to me.”
An Australian journalist wanted to know why Baugé was asking these questions, to which he replied: “Because he beat me. I’ve prepared my Games in my own way so I’m curious to know how he prepared. It’s not easy. He had to compete with Chris Hoy first to get the selection, then he had to concentrate on the team sprint [which Britain won, on Thursday].”
This unusual exchange may have been entirely innocent but it certainly suggested a measure of resentment at Baugé’s end. The gist of his questioning was that Britain have been much less dominant in world championships than at Olympic Games. It obscured his own brush with authority over doping. Baugé was stripped of the 2011 world title for a “violation of article 21.4 of the UCI Anti-doping Regulation” [two breaches of applicable requirements regarding rider availability and one missed test in 18 months].”
In other words he breached doping protocols and missed a test. He also regained the world sprint title in April of this year at Kenny’s expense.
In no way should his hijacking of a media inquisition be allowed to overshadow Kenny’s achievement — but it has to be reported, not least because of the sardonic nature of Baugé’s questioning.
That aside, Kenny is now cycling aristocracy. The only reasons for leaving Sir Chris Hoy out of an Olympic bike sprint would be a selectorial death wish or perhaps a hatred of knights. Right? Wrong. Kenny, the man who shot Bambi, vindicated the management’s decision to pick him ahead of Hoy with a victory of deep mental strength.
When Dave Brailsford, the head of British Cycling, made his pick, Hoy, 36, was left to defend only two of the three titles he won in Beijing: the team sprint and keirin.
“If Chris was in my shoes there was no way he could lose this one,” Kenny said. “So it was a case of justifying my place. It’s just a shame we both couldn’t have been in it [the regulations allow one pick]. It’s been a really lonely three days. I’m used to working through sprint competitions with a team-mate or even two team-mates at the worlds, so its nice to be on the other side of it now.
“If you look back on history, when it comes down to that really important ride, when it really really matters, nine times out of 10 Chris has stepped up and smoked it. That’s why he’s got so many medals and has had so much success in sport because he’s got that real killer instinct to finish off a race.” In the warm-up, Kenny looked a comparatively skinny adversary for Baugé.
But in the battle he first outsprinted him on the last half-lap and then held him off as Baugé chased an equalising win. A 2-0 victory for Britain’s representative in this sauna was the perfect prelude to the departures from Olympic competition On Tuesday of Hoy and Victoria Pendleton.
Kenny had already collected gold as man two in the team sprint and said: “I really, really enjoyed that, but I didn’t get chance to savour the moment because I felt so sick after the final. I let the other lads do the victory lap and just sat down to try and keep my lunch down. It was nice this time to enjoy the moment, do a few laps and soak it up.
“After qualifying we felt we had a bit more speed, which is always a luxury in sprints because it means if you don’t make any mistakes you should win nine times out of ten.”
“They made the right call,” Hoy said at the time. “It is not about individual ambition, it’s about the team getting the most number of gold medals.”
But what makes the British so good, wondered the man from Voice of America radio? “Being at home with the British public helps. We’ve always been close in the world championships. When it comes to the Olympics we make sure we get every little detail right. That’s what we did in Beijing and that’s what we did here. Team morale goes a long way as well.”
With three golds already at 24, Kenny could even overtake Hoy’s total of six. “Four years is a long time and so I’m just enjoying this one. By the time we get to Rio the team will be different again,” he said. In the meantime he is a greatly elevated ambassador for cycling who will not have to answer to Baugé again at these Games.
“It’s a great way of getting around town if nothing else,” he said of his sport. “The Manchester Velodrome is booked for four years. It’s a case of bringing home as many medals as we can. I live in Manchester and I use it [his bike] to get around town. There’s no reason to think it will stop growing.”
So the man who was stripped of the 2011 world championships for doping offences is questioning the legitimacy of the British team's success.
