British one-two in tandems

Kappes and pilot Craig Maclean were devastated after they weren't allowed to start the tandem time trial because of an issue with their bike but rebounded to beat British team-mates Kappes and Barney Storey, gold medallists in the time trial, in two straight races in the sprint final.

And there was also a silver medal for Britain's team sprint combination of Rik Waddon, Darren Kenny and Jon-Allan Butterworth while Aileen McGlynn and pilot Helen Scott beat British team-mates Lora Turnham and Fiona Duncan to win tandem pursuit bronze.

"It would have been nice to have celebrated a double but we've made amends a bit for what happened in the time trial and it's always great to win a gold medal," said Maclean, a team sprint silver medallist with Chris Hoy at the 2004 Olympics.

"I will look back on this very fondly because of the sense of occasion. We wanted to come here and demonstrate what we could do and the speed we have and I feel that we've done that."

Kappes added: "We blew it in the time trial. I felt bereft yesterday but I knew I'd be fine when we got back out there and it's just great to get a gold for all that work we've put in."

Meanwhile, Waddon, a silver medallist in Beijing three years ago, came second again as Great Britain's team sprint trio lost out to China in the very last race at the Olympic velodrome, the scene of so much British success in recent weeks.

Waddon's face on crossing the line said it all, he had sacrificed his own individual ambitions to focus on training for the team event and along with team-mates Butterworth and Kenny had lost out by just six hundredths of a second, as China scorched to a new world record

"You always want to win gold but they just went quicker," he said.

"You can't control what other nations do. Things have moved on, which is good for the sport.

"We dominated in Beijing but other nations have stepped up, which we expected and I think that's a really good thing for the sport and the Paralympics because people want to be see competitive racing.

"We can only look forward four years now. The rest of the world have been coming after us and in some events they've caught us up, we can do the chasing now."

Meanwhile, McGlynn and pilot Helen Scott were delighted with their bronze in the pursuit, especially because they'd beaten Turnham, who had been targeting the event.

“I’m more happy with this bronze than with my sprint silver because we didn’t do any specific training for the pursuit,” she said.