DUTCH rider Shanne Braspennincx won Olympic gold in the keirin today, just six years after a potentially career-ending heart attack and only hours after her teammate was stretchered out of Tokyo’s Izu velodrome.

Braspennincx, 30, went to the front on the final lap of the six-lap race and left New Zealand’s Ellesse Andrews and Lauriane Genest of Canada trailing for silver and bronze.

She had been waiting to step onto the track for her semi-final when teammate Laurine van Riessen crashed heavily in her first turn and had to be carried out by medical staff.