Sir Jason Kenny 'a little bit sad' after announcing retirement from cycling to move into coaching

Britain’s greatest Olympian Sir Jason Kenny admitted to being “a little bit sad” but excited as he announced his retirement from racing in order to move into coaching.

The 33-year-old has this week formally begun work as British Cycling’s men’s podium sprint coach, overseeing riders who were team-mates until his appointment.

Kenny, who won a stunning keirin gold in Tokyo last summer to claim a seventh Olympic title 13 years after his first in Beijing, had been planning to keep going until the Paris Games in 2024 but said the opportunity to coach the British squad was one he could not pass up.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” said Kenny, who was knighted in the New Year Honours List. “I genuinely wanted to carry on to Paris, but I creak quite a lot these days and I always knew I wanted to go into coaching off the back of it, and this opportunity came along.

“I am a little bit sad to be honest because all I’ve known is riding and competing, but I’m quite excited to get stuck into the job.”

The move was not long in the planning. British Cycling advertised for the role on LinkedIn last month, ironically illustrating the advert with a picture of Kenny, who chose to put in what he called a “speculative” application a day before the deadline without discussing it with senior coaches first.

“The job ad came up and I ummed and ahed a bit,” added Kenny. “I was full-time training at the time, but I’ve started to ache a lot more these days.

“I thought, I don’t even know if I’m going to make it to Paris, so I could commit for three years and get nothing out of it.

“This opportunity might not come here again. If they got a good coach they could be in the role for potentially 10 years, so I thought I’d go for it now…I think if I hadn’t