2008 Beijing Olympic Games

Following on from the domination of the Team Sprint boys and Bradley Wiggins in the Men's Pursuit, Brits Wendy Houvenaghel and Bex Romero stormed to the top of the Women's 3km Individual Pursuit Qualification times at the Laoshan Velodrome in the Beijing Olympics



World Champion Romero set a blistering time of 3m 28.641s, however to the surprise of probably everybody bar GB insiders, Wendy Houvenaghel topped the standings with a new British record time of 3m 28.443s

Romero even managed to catch Katie Mactier in her heat, a fantastic achievement given the Aussie's pedigree, whereas Wendy made multiple World Champion Sarah Hammer look like an also ran in her heat, beating the American by a massive seven seconds!

Afterwards Hammer commented: "It was ugly for me personally," Hammer said of her qualifying heat." That's not how I hope to feel. My body wasn't handling it today. Four laps in I was like, 'oh, this is not going to be fun.' It was just a bad day. I was a little nervous, so I'm lucky it's over three rounds."

Round One saw Romero top the times with a new British record of 3m 27.703s to make the final against teammate Houvenaghel, who was only slightly slower with a time of 3m 27.829s

Pre-Olympics Katie Mactier and Sarah Hammer would also have been favourites for a medal, but it will be Alison Shanks of New Zealand and Ukrainian Lesya Kalitovska who shall ride off for bronze



Sunday's final gave Rebecca Romero the chance to become the greatest ever female athlete in Olympic history, regardless of the result, as she would become the only female to medal in two different sports

Only 30mins prior to her final her Rowing Quad Skulls team-mates from four years ago in Athens had produced a disappointing performance to again win Silver, and this result was relayed to Bex by coach Dan Hunt as she walked to then line

Fired up like never before, World Champion Romero pushed her huge gear away from the starting gate and immediately began to chase down Houvenaghel, and from that point on never looked like finishing with anything other than the Gold medal

As Bex realised what she had achieved she let out screams of celebration, just like four months ago in Manchester when she became World Champion, only this time she had achieved the greatest accolade in sport, Olympic Gold Medallist

Results

Finals

1. ROMERO Rebecca GBR 1:11.919(1) 2:19.534(1) 3:28.321  51.843 
2. HOUVENAGHEL Wendy GBR 1:13.032(2) 2:22.045(2) 3:30.395  51.332 

3. KALITOVSKA Lesya UKR 1:11.964(1) 2:21.156(1) 3:31.413  51.084 
4. SHANKS Alison NZL 1:13.827(2) 2:22.264(2) 3:34.156  50.430 

Round 1

1.  ROMERO Rebecca GBR 1:11.738(1) 2:19.424(1) 3:27.703  51.997 
2.  MACTIER Katie AUS 1:12.929(2) 2:23.336(2) 3:37.296   OVL   

1.  SHANKS Alison NZL 1:13.263(2) 2:21.429(1) 3:32.478  50.828 
2.  HAMMER Sarah USA 1:13.139(1) 2:21.747(2) 3:34.237  50.411 

1.  KALITOVSKA Lesya UKR 1:12.584(1) 2:21.177(1) 3:31.785  50.995 
2.  SEREIKAITE Vilija LTU 1:12.925(2) 2:24.242(2) 3:36.808  49.813 

1.  HOUVENAGHEL Wendy GBR 1:12.000(1) 2:20.021(1) 3:27.829  51.965 
2.  KOZLIKOVA Lada CZE 1:14.085(2) 2:26.524(2)   DNF  

  Qualification
1. HOUVENAGHEL Wendy Great Britain 1:11.842(4) 2:20.494(3) 3:28.443  
2. ROMERO Rebecca Great Britain 1:11.927(5) 2:19.610(1) 3:28.641 
3. KALITOVSKA Lesya Ukraine 1:11.544(2) 2:20.454(2) 3:31.942 
4. SHANKS Alison New Zealand 1:13.624(8) 2:22.256(6) 3:34.312
5. HAMMER Sarah United States 1:11.654(3) 2:21.500(4) 3:35.471
6. SEREIKAITE Vilija Lithuania 1:12.685(6) 2:23.728(7) 3:36.063
7. MACTIER Katie Australia 1:10.594(1) 2:21.966(5) 3:38.178  
8. KOZLIKOVA Lada Czech Republic 1:14.265(9) 2:25.677(8) 3:39.561

9.  THURIG Karin Switzerland 1:16.058(12) 2:27.938(10) 3:40.862 
10. CALLE Maria Luisa Colombia 1:14.419(10) 2:25.838(9) 3:41.175
11. JOOSS Verena Germany 1:15.748(11) 2:28.880(12) 3:44.480 
12. PAULIUKAITE Svetlana Lithuania 1:13.585(7) 2:28.093(11) 3:45.691 
13. GARCIA Evelyn El Salvador 1:17.464(13) 2:35.701(13) 3:56.849