Romero wins pursuit gold
- By VeloNews.com
- Published Aug. 17, 2008
- Updated Aug. 17, 2008 at 1:57 PM EDT
Britain’s Rebecca Romero made Olympic history in Beijing Sunday when she became just the second woman to claim medals in two different sports at the summer Games.
England’s Romero dominated the 3km individual-pursuit final to leave Wendy Houvenaghel of Northern Ireland with the silver medal after posting a winning time of three minutes, 28.32 seconds.
Lesya Kalitovska of Ukraine defeated New Zealand’s Alison Shanks to win the bronze medal.
“It’s not the way I imagined it to feel, but it’s magic!” said Romero. “It’s pretty incredible. I’m so proud of myself. If it were easy, so many people would have done it already. I wanted a gold, I wanted to be a champion. Now I’ve put my mark down to be remembered.”
Romero’s was the first Olympic gold medal for Britain in the event, and came a day after Bradley Wiggins successfully defended his individual pursuit crown in the men’s 4km race.
Romero’s win, five months after her maiden world title, meant Britain had now claimed an impressive four gold medals from five of what will ultimately be a total of 10 finals.
British riders have now won eight of the 15 medals up for grabs so far.
Romero, who won an Olympic rowing silver four years ago in the women’s quadruple sculls, follows in the footsteps of Roswitha Krause of the former East Germany. Krause won a swimming silver at the 1968 Games in Mexico from the women’s 4x100m relay, then won silver in the women’s handball final at the 1976 Games in Montreal and handball bronze at Moscow in 1980.
The 28-year-old Romero said there was no way she was settling for silver this time around.
“I’d have been absolutely crushed if I got the silver,” said Romero, who only took up cycling seriously in 2006 after giving up rowing due to a recurring back problem. “It’s taken for me to come into cycling to realize my full athletic potential.”
Houvenaghel only took up cycling six years ago, but won world-championship bronze in the individual pursuit and gold in the non-Olympic team event at Manchester in March.
Formerly an amateur cross-country runner, she discovered a talent for time-trialing in 2002, not long after she had run the London Marathon for the first time in April of that year.
Although being pushed into road time-trialing by her husband, a cycling enthusiast, she was inspired to take up track cycling after she saw Scotland’s Chris Hoy win gold in the kilometer at Athens in 2004.
Romero set out to make up for her “disappointing” silver rowing medal from Athens in defiant fashion. Although Houvenaghel led over the first couple of laps of the 250-meter track, the Northern Irishwoman was soon playing catch-up. Romero led after the first kilometer, and held her pace over the next four laps to virtually seal the gold.
Houvenaghel raced a faster third lap, but by then it was too late. Houvenaghel finished just over two seconds behind.
Still, even as Romero screamed in joy, brandishing a Union Jack, the 33-year-old Houvenaghel still had a huge smile on her face.
“It’s great to get silver, and for Rebecca to get gold as well,” said Houvenaghel. “It’s the best I could do today, considering I did two pursuits (in qualifying) yesterday. I couldn’t go faster. I did my best and I have to make peace with that.”
For her part, Romero said: “I’m ecstatic for her. She’s a great athlete. She has given me a memorable Olympics.”