By Martyn Herman
RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - Jason Kenny showed fellow Briton and room mate Callum Skinner a clean set of wheels to defend his track cycling sprint title on Sunday, powering to his fifth Olympic gold medal.
The 28-year-old was under pressure to prove he is still top dog in the team, let alone the world, but the master gave the apprentice a lesson in the art of sprinting, winning both heats with something to spare.
Kenny, a team mate of Skinner's when Britain won the team sprint earlier in the week, has now won as many gold medals as fellow cyclist Bradley Wiggins and could take his tally to six when he contests his final event, the keirin.
The two finalist have been sharing digs in the Olympic Village and know each other's race styles inside out after thousands of training session together.
But come the real thing there was only going to be one winner with Kenny at his devastating best.
"It's really special, it's not really sunk in," Kenny told reporters. "It was weird because we finished the semis yesterday which were a real scrap and had 24 hours to sit on it.
"It's a bit strange and it feels like a bit of a lull now."
Asked whether the previous night had been awkward, Kenny said he and Skinner had chatted about other British athletes at the Games.
"(Andy) Murray, heptathlon and (Greg) Rutherford," he said.
Kenny said the past few days had reminded him of Beijing eight years ago when he was the new kid on the block.
On that occasion he won team sprint with British great Chris Hoy but had to play second fiddle in the individual event where Hoy won gold and he took the silver.
Six-times Olympic gold medallist Hoy was watching the two Britons go head-to-head from trackside.
"A Great Britain one-two is amazing," Hoy told the BBC.
"Jason had so much in the tank, he had phenomenal power."
Britain have dominated the track cycling programme in Rio, winning four of the six events completed.
Russia's Denis Dmitriev beat Australia's Matthew Glaetzer in the race for bronze.