Chris Hoy leads Britain's massive medal haul

uploaded by Milieunet August 19, 2008 at 09:00 pm
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Chris Hoy leads Britain's massive medal haul by Milieunet

British cyclist Chris Hoy has won his third gold medal of the Beijing Olympics, boosting Britain's total gold medal tally to 13, the country's best performance since 1920.

Hoy, the silver medalist from Sydney and reigning world champion, defeated Kenny in two races in the final Tuesday at the Laoshan Velodrome to complete a perfect week.

The last Briton to achieve a hat-trick of golds at a single Games was swimmer Henry Taylor in 1908 -- when the bulk of the competing athletes were British.

Britain is in third place in the medal race, behind the US and China, and spirits are riding high in the English media, as The New Zealand Herald reports.

The English media are getting giddy over Great Britain's medal tally with some dubbing the 2008 Beijing Olympics the "Great Haul of China".

Great Britain are a distant third in the medal tally, behind China and the US, with 13 gold medals. China and the US have 39 and 23 gold medals respectively.

The Guardian described the past two days as "heady" with Brits on the dais by the pool, rowing lake, the velodrome and the pommel horse.