Bradford's Yvonne McGregor wept with joy today after becoming the first British woman ever to win an Olympic cycling medal.

The 39-year-old punched the air with delight as she crossed the finishing line to take the bronze medal in the 3,000 metres individual pursuit at the Olympic Games in Sydney.

She also claimed the proud boast of being the oldest ever female cycling medallist.

Yvonne, from Wibsey, snatched the medal from the grasp of Sarah Ulmer by squeezing over the line just eight-hundredths of a second ahead of the New Zealender in a race-off for third place.

Her success today helped bury some of the anguish of four years ago when she finished fourth in the same event at the Atlanta games.

It also crowns a remarkable cycling career which only began eight years ago and has already seen her win Commonwealth Games gold and bronze medals, plus a world championships bronze.

Yvonne was adrift at every stage of the 12-lap race until the final 100 metres, when she finally overhauled the Kiwi to finish in 3 minutes 38.85 seconds against the 3 minutes 38.93 of Ulmer.

A jubilant Yvonne told the Telegraph & Argus: "I was really disappointed in Atlanta because I didn't feel I performed to my expectations but I really feel I have performed well here.

"To have missed out there and then got this one right on the wire is very satisfying. I knew I had to ride a controlled race. I couldn't go all out - I had to ride efficiently.

"I knew I was gaining towards the end and I just went all out for the line. I heard the gun go off on my side first and then it was just tears."

Yvonne is the third Bradfordian to win an Olympic medal in recent times. Swimmer Adrian Moorhouse struck gold in 1988 while hockey player Jill Atkins picked up a bronze in 1992 and her achievement has already been saluted by members of the city's sporting fraternity.

Bradford Bulls media manager Stuart Duffy said: "To win an Olympic medal is a tremendous achievement. We are absolutely thrilled for Yvonne and proud that she comes from Bradford."

Bradford City chairman Geoffrey Richmond said: "It is a tremendous achievement for Yvonne and more sporting success for the city of Bradford."

The bronze medal winner was quick to praise the contribution of her coach Peter Keen for her success. "I am just so pleased for Peter because he stuck by me through thick and thin," she said. "He has put so much into the Elite Performance Programme and it has really paid off here.

"He told me to come over the line with nothing left and, for once, I really feel I have given a good performance."

Yvonne was forced to move her training base from Bradford to Cheshire last year.

She does much of her work at the Manchester Velodrome but she also wanted to find quieter roads to train on.

"It was the traffic in Bradford," she admitted. "There was so much of it that you were forever stopping and starting, and it made training very difficult.

"I seemed to halt for ages at Otley traffic lights, and the three times I was knocked down when training were all within a mile of my home.

"I broke a scaphoid bone and was severely bruised on one occasion, and had to have my collarbone pinned after another accident."