Individual Pursuit (4,000 metres), Women

In Athina Britain’s Rebecca Romero had won a medal – but in rowing. She was a member of the British quad sculls team that placed second in 2004. A back injury forced her to turn to cycling a year later. Her rise in the sport was meteoric, as she was second at the 2007 World Championships in only her second year of international racing, and had won the 2008 World Championships in March. She was co- favorite with America’s Sarah Hammer, World Champion in 2006-07, and runner-up to Romero in 2008. Hammer struggled in Beijing. She qualified in fifth place as the qualifying was led by Romero’s teammate, Wendy Houvenaghel, with Romero second. Houvenaghel was also a latecomer to the sport, not having started competing on the bike until she had turned 27, but she had placed fourth at the 2008 Worlds. In round one, Romero and Houvenaghel qualified for the gold medal race with the best times, while Hammer was defeated by New Zealand’s Alison Shanks and would finish only fifth. The final between the British teammates was not close. Romero had the fastest time at each kilometer split and won by over two seconds. In the bronze medal race, Shanks lost out to Ukraine’s Lesya Kalitovska.