Bradley Wiggins took his third gold medal of the track cycling world championships, partnering Mark Cavendish to victory in the men’s madison.

Victoria Pendleton and Chris Hoy also won, giving Britain nine golds from the 14 so far decided.

To the cheering of the sellout home crowd, Wiggins and Cavendish relayed round the track, looking at one stage as if they would not manage to steal the lap but finally reaching their destination with only a few laps to go. They had to struggle until the end, however, to prevent any of the other teams from jumping clear.

Germany took the silver medal, with Denmark in bronze.

Pendleton defeated Simona Krupeckaite of Lithuania in two straight races in the final of the women’s sprint for a second successful defense of the three golds she won a year ago. Jennie Reed of the United States beat Shuang Guo of China in a deciding race for the bronze.

Earlier, 20-year-old Marianne Vos of the Netherlands won the women’s points race to become the first woman to take world championships in three distinct cycling disciplines after becoming road-race and cyclo-cross champion in 2006.

Her victory was the first gold medal of the championships for the Dutch squad, which was expected to be strong.

Meanwhile eight-time world champion Natallia Tsylinskaya of Belarus broke her collarbone and received heavy bruising to her neck after crashing during the heats of the women’s sprint on Friday. But she is expected to make a full recovery.