Britain's Chris Hoy prompted cheers that could be heard halfway across Manchester Friday as the hosts continued their stunning domination of world track cycling.

Hoy, 32, handed Britain their sixth gold medal from only 10 events at the world championships with a thrilling display of power to beat Frenchman Kevin Sireau over two legs in the blue riband event of the sprint.

Edinburgh-born Hoy's feat means he is the first rider in history to hold world titles in the four speed events of the kilometre, team sprint, keirin and sprint.

The 32-year-old Scot was already considered the darling of British track cycling's speed events, having moved over to the sprint in the wake of winning the keirin crown last year.

Ahead of aiming for a possible three Olympic golds in Beijing, he has also handed Britain their first title in the men's event since Reginald Harris's win in the professional category and Cyril Peacock's victory in the amateur ranks, both in 1954.

That was a little known fact that even Hoy was unaware of.

"Oh well, that's nice then isn't it!"

He added: "I never dreamt that I'd win this. I came here with an outside chance of a medal. I had a couple of good rides in the World Cup, but my form just seems to be stepping up and up."

"It's the most surprising, even more so than the keirin last year."

Hoy's win was all the more deserved as he ousted defending champion Theo Bos in the quarter-finals before going on to beat Sireau, who had dominated qualifying with the only sub 10-sec time of the field.

The new star of French sprinting, who is only 20 years old, was disappointed to not to have taken his challenge all the way.

"It's my first world championship medal (in individual). But I'm totally gutted," said Sireau, who claimed gold on the opening day as France dominated Britain in the team sprint.

"I had total belief that I could win both legs, and gave it everything I had."

Britain had already celebrated their fifth gold of the championships when Rebecca Romero, who won individual pursuit gold on Thursday, teamed up with Wendy Houvenaghel and Joanna Rowsell to crush Ukraine in the final.

After starting slower than this season's World Cup pacesetters, Britain pulled ahead before the halfway point and finished convincingly to claim a deserved gold.

Although the women's team pursuit is not an Olympic event, Romero will be Britain's best hope of individual pursuit gold in Beijing, where she will also aim for the rare feat of winning Olympic medals from two sports.

"Yesterday was phenomenal. At two o'clock in the morning I was still awake with a smile on my face," Romero, a former rower who won silver in the quadruple sculls in Athens, told AFP.

"But it was a case of getting the head down knowing you had another job to do. It was quite tough, but being so elated from yesterday and running on adrenaline helped me through."

Prior to the feats of Hoy and the women's pursuit trio, Britain had already won four gold medals, from seven events, through Bradley Wiggins in the individual pursuit, Victoria Pendleton and Shanaze Reade in the team sprint, the men's pursuit team and Romero in the women's individual pursuit.

Pendelton has already qualified for the semi-finals of the sprint, which along with the men's keirin highlights Saturday's programme.

It remains to be seen how Hoy handles a tough day of competition after having to dig deep on Friday, when Bos will be out for revenge.

Before looking towards any of his Olympic ambitions, Hoy seems to be focused on the job at hand.

"I've got the worlds tomorrow, the keirin first," said Hoy, who paid tribute to his German coach Jan van Eijden, who won his own world sprint crown here in 2000.

"I now have tactical awareness to go with my speed. I made a couple of mistakes in earlier rounds, but the confidence I get from having the best coaches - guys who have been there and done it before - is amazing."

AFP