There is fire in Rebecca Romero’s belly and yesterday, as she sped to a joyful gold in the women’s individual pursuit race, she lit up the Olympic velodrome. Of the many British successes on the boards of the Laoshan track over the past three days, Romero’s has been the most dramatic.

Like the nation itself, the former rower has been seduced by track cycling and is an evangelical spokesperson for the power of two wheels. Silver medal-winner in sculling four years ago in Athens, she admits that before her conversion, her career was in a cul-de-sac. Through British Cycling, Romero has been born again and converted into a world-beater.

In some ways, her pursuit final yesterday, against her Great Britain team-mate, Wendy Houvenaghel, was almost an anticlimax. The swan-necked Houvenaghel was overwhelmed by the force of nature that is Romero in full flight. “It was an all-British final and one of us had to win,” Houvenaghel, who hails from Northern Ireland, but now lives in Bodmin, Cornwall, said.

At the finish of the three-kilometre race, the defeated Houvenaghel rode demurely around the inside of the track, a wry smile playing on her lips, as she listened to Romero screeching in delight over and over again, a few metres away. “I would have been absolutely crushed to have won silver again,” Romero said. “To have medals in two different sports — I’m so proud of myself. It’s been my goal to be a great athlete, to be a great champion.”

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During the medal ceremony, Romero wiped away tears as she clutched a long-awaited gold medal. “If I hadn’t done it today, I don’t know where I would be,” she said. “Probably on the floor, dead somewhere. It’s been so hard, I can’t explain. I was totally believing in myself, but it’s the ultimate.”

Not for the first time she was riddled with doubts. Before she left the Olympic Village yesterday, Romero told Victoria Pendleton, her team-mate: “I feel like I’m on my way to court for judgment. It’s decision day and I’m about to be freed for the rest of my life, freed from the demons.”

Romero’s constant battle with the “dark side”, as Dan Hunt, her coach, described it, is what makes the Londoner such a compelling athlete. “She’ll sit down and say that it was a fluke that she became world champion, a fluke that she’s now Olympic champion, but these things don’t happen by fluke,” he said. “We go to the ends of the earth to find improvements in performance.”

Romero’s fast-track pursuit of Olympic gold began in April 2006, when Hunt was alerted to the 28-year-old’s disenchantment with rowing. “I did a little bit of research on her and then rang her up,” he said.

Romero travelled to British Cycling’s base at Manchester Velodrome and underwent physiological tests with Team GB’s coaching staff. “I was impressed straight away,” Hunt said. “She was at the elite end, but then we expected that because she had already won an Olympic medal in an endurance sport.”

The next challenge was to take Romero’s physical strength and to harness it in cycling. “She was a natural pedaller,” Hunt said. “She could put the power down on the bike. 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.” But handling both Romero’s intense drive to succeed and her lack of cycling experience also created challenges for Hunt. “We took a massive leap of faith when we took her on board,” he said. “We were heading into the unknown, and we couldn’t let it go wrong.”

Yesterday, that faith was repaid. Houvenaghel, Romero’s Olympic village flat-mate and her partner in winning the world team pursuit title last spring, failed to maintain the pace she had set in qualifying, leaving the way clear for her team-mate. Hunt, who coaches both athletes, found his loyalties torn and opted out, leaving fellow coaches Shane Sutton and Matt Parker to “walk the line” and pass on time checks.

But the pair’s focus on Olympic gold was not softened by any sentiment between the two riders and their coach. “We’d talked about this scenario, of both of them reaching the final, over the last 18 months or so,” Hunt said. “They are really professional, they’ve been world champions together and now they’re Olympic medalists. It was business as usual. They’re team-mates and they could be going to London 2012.

“I’m not spending four years pandering to individuals’ needs, because this is sport, it isn’t about personal differences. One person wins and one person loses. They both accept that. And they both know that they wouldn’t be where they are without each other.”

Timetable of hope

Today 10.20am It’s gold or silver in cycling for Team GB’s team pursuiters

Today 10am-11.15am Phillips Idowu, who has jumped farther than anyone this year, gets his campaign under way in the qualifying round of the triple jump.

Today 14.45 Boxer David Price takes on Lithuania’s Jaroslav Jaksto in the super-heavyweight division in the quarter-finals.

Tomorrow noon-3.17pm Christine Ohuruogu can make good her belief that she can beat Sanya Richards, of the United States, in the 400 metres final.

Tomorrow 9.30-12.50am Chris Hoy, Jason Kenny and Victoria Pendleton compete in the sprint in the velodrome.

Thursday David Davies, or Dai Splash as he is known in Wales, goes in the ten-kilometre swimming marathon.

Thursday Shanaze Reade, 19, the world champion, is expected to deliver in the new Olympic sport of BMX.