Bradford on Avon's Ed McKeever claimed Great Britain's 26th gold medal this morning as he stormed to victory in the k1 200m sprint final.

The 28-year-old produced a stunning performance on his day of destiny at London 2012 and after another imperious start, led from the front before crossing the line in 36.246 seconds, ahead of Spain's Saul Craviotto Rivero (36.540) and Canada's Mark de Jonge (36.657).

Ice-cool McKeever pounded the water and lofted one fist in the air to celebrate winning his Olympic gold medal and revealed after his race that he was simply relieved to have performed when it mattered.

"I was really just focussed on the first two, three strokes and I really just wanted to nail those to get out quickly and hope that the race sorted itself out - and it did.

"I'm so happy.

"(I just felt) relief, not kind of elation or all those other things. I'm just so happy that I could do it in front of the home crowd.

"This morning, I woke up at 5 o'clock and I was like a kid at Christmas just waiting to open his presents and I'm going to go get those presents.

"There's so many people I'd like to thank - my coach Alex Nikonorov but also my training partner Edd Cox, who pushes me day in, day out.

"Unfortunately only one of us can compete at the games and in my case, I'm lucky it's me."

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