The former Upperlands woman goes in the qualifying heats of the 3000 metre pursuit on Friday morning at 11 o'clock (GMT).

Her aim is to qualify for the first round of the pursuit on Saturday morning to get into one of the finals on Sunday.

If all goes to plan, Wendy should get one of two places in the gold/silver medal decider scheduled for 10.10am (GMT).

Team GB consider Houvenaghel to be a real medal prospect and Sunday's victory for Nicole Cooke in the 75-mile road race has really buoyed the team up.

The 33-year-old dentist is hungry to get her hands on a medal after being edged into fourth spot in the individual pursuit at the World Championships in Manchester earlier this year.

While she won gold in the team pursuit at the Championships, she said her target would be a gold medal at the Olympics.

Wendy's mum, May McLean, says she stays in touch with her daughter by e-mail since she arrived in China over a week ago.

"She seems to have settled down well and is getting on with things," she said. "I think just getting to the Olympics is a huge achievement."

Her husband, Ian, left their Cornish home for the Games earlier this week and her brother and sister, Andrew and Janice, will also be in the Velodrome to cheer her on.

As for mum and dad Philip back in Upperlands, well, they're heading for a vintage drive in their Austin 12 this weekend to Enniskillen.

"We'll watch the Friday qualifying on television," explained May, who stressed that Sunday was "still a long way off".

"She has beaten most of these girls before but anything can happen on the day," said May. "A split second could decide the winner."

The British team are confident of getting more medals in the cycling events, the question remaining is whether Wendy can do for Northern Ireland what Nicole Cooke did for Wales.