The story of Rebecca Romero continued to capture the imagination at the Track World Championships yesterday when the former Olympic rower added a women’s team pursuit title to the individual pursuit gold she had won on Thursday evening.

Great Britain’s trio of Romero, Wendy Houvenaghel and Jo Rowsell had set the fastest time in qualifying for the final and easily overpowered Ukraine to claim Team GB’s fifth gold of the championships.

Romero, a silver medal-winner in rowing at the Athens Olympics four years ago, is now rivalling Victoria Pendleton, the fastest rider in the women’s sprint heats, as Team GB’s golden girl. Pendleton was her usual unflappable self yesterday as she progressed to the sprint semi-finals and remains on course to fulfil her goal of winning three world titles for the second year running.

On a good night for Britain, Chris Hoy, the Olympic kilometre time-trial champion, also took a memorable victory in the men’s sprint final to take the team’s gold-medal haul to six. It was a vindication of his decision to move on to new disciplines after the kilometre time-trial was dropped from the Beijing Games.

“When you get as long in the tooth as me, you think you’ve seen it all and done it all, but this means a hell of a lot to me,” the Scot said. “It’s not as though I thought my career was ended when the kilometre was axed, but I felt that it limited it. But the keirin and men’s sprint have opened up for me in Beijing and it’s fantastic.”

However, it is Romero’s remarkable transition from rower to cyclist that has made the biggest impression at the championships. Even her rivals are taking note. Sarah Hammer, for one, is unlikely to forget the night that she came up against an irrepressible Romero in the women’s pursuit final. “I wanted to call it after the first kilometre,” the American said. “I thought, ‘Catch me Rebecca and get this over with.’ I knew unless she was dragging an anchor around that I was never going to win.”

Romero’s fast-track pursuit of gold began two years ago, when Dan Hunt, the Team GB women’s endurance coach, was called by a friend, who alerted him to the Londoner’s disenchantment with rowing. “She had decided that she was going to leave rowing,” Hunt said. “I did a bit of research on her and then rang her up.

“I didn’t know that she was interested in cycling. She hadn’t told anybody in rowing at that stage about her decision to move on, so we had to be a little discreet. But she came up here to Manchester for the day to see if she had a feel for cycling.”

To Hunt’s amazement, Romero took to cycling like a duck — or even a rower — to water. “I was impressed straight away,” he said. “We did a physiological test on the bike and the numbers that came back were very impressive. She was at the elite end, but then we expected that because she had already won an Olympic medal in an endurance sport.”

But as Hunt and David Brailsford, the Team GB performance director, took in the former rower’s raw talent, they were faced with another question: would she be able to dance? “At British Cycling, we talk about whether the athletes can ‘dance’ or not — whether they have the coordination of their limbs on the bike,” Hunt said, “and she could do it. She was a natural pedaller. ”

Romero was blooded in the national championships in 2006 and, after winning the silver medal in last year’s World Championships in Majorca, she moved to Manchester to be closer to British Cycling’s headquarters.

But the move north, in August 2007, almost backfired. “It was a huge sacrifice because I gave up my whole life,” she said. “I moved away from friends and family and sold my house. The focus, 24/7, was on my sport.”

Self-doubt began to creep in as Romero struggled to settle in Manchester while working harder than ever to improve her performances, without any significant change.

“There were times, towards the end of last year, when things were going downhill, in my training and in my life generally,” she said. “Every athlete has those points, but it was probably one of the most difficult challenges I have ever faced. If Dan wasn’t here being the great coach that he is, then I wouldn’t be where I am.”

Hunt nursed Romero through her midwinter doubts. “I’ve worked with elite female athletes for the last seven years and she is the most driven athlete I have ever met, male or female,” he said. “Her attitude is unparalleled in my experience and I think she’s dealt with the move really well. Cycling’s not the most social sport. You drag yourself to training and then head back to rest. That’s your life and she’s 100 per cent prepared to give that.”

According to British Cycling’s coaching staff, Romero has what it takes to succeed at Olympic level. “When you look at her profile, there’s no real limiting factors,” Hunt said. “The key element is how much we are prepared to change and adapt. If we carry on as we are then we will just get the same times — 3min 29sec for the pursuit — and that won’t be good enough in Beijing.”

It is hard to dismiss the notion that a medal-winning performance in cycling at the Beijing Olympics, four years after claiming a rowing silver in Athens, is Romero’s destiny. It might even be gold.

“We took a massive leap of faith when we took her on board,” Hunt said. “We were heading into the unknown, we had a bit of bad press from rowing, and we couldn’t let it go wrong. We saw yesterday that there are four riders separated by two seconds. On the day, it will come down to who’s prepared to stand up and fight the hardest.”

Judging from her showing in Manchester, Romero is determined to be in there at the end.

Like a rower to water

March 2006 Meets Dan Hunt, Team GB coach, for the first time. Her first recorded 3,000 metre pursuit time is 3min 47sec

Sept 2006 Wins first significant race, the British National Time-Trial Championships

Oct 2006 Wins silver at National Pursuit Championships in 3:41

Dec 2006 Improves pursuit time to 3:39 at Moscow World Cup

March 2007 Wins silver medal in individual pursuit at World Championships with time of 3:31

Oct 2007 Wins National Pursuit Championships with time of 3:34

March 2008 Wins gold in both individual and team pursuit at World Championships

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