THERE were tears of pride and joy shed in a Lymington household on Sunday when Hazel and Maurice Yerby saw their eldest granddaughter Nicole Cooke become Britain's first gold medallist of the 2008 Olympic Games in the cycling road race.

As Welsh girl Nicole was punching the air with ecstasy as she sprinted across the line a wheel and a half in front of Sweden's Emma Johansson, Mr and Mrs Yerby and their youngest grandchild Stephanie were sitting on the edge of their seats in their front room in Everton.

"We've not seen a lot of her this year and we weren't sure how she had prepared for this race," said Mrs Yerby.

"We were very apprehensive but looking at her we could see that she was determined and when that five broke away you could tell she was waiting for that final sprint."

There were concerns when she came out of the final corner slightly adrift of her breakaway colleagues.

But she was probably holding back on the bend in case someone crashed on the last bend in the torrential rain that had caused several earlier pile-ups.

Stephanie, from Hereford, who is visiting her maternal grandparents, said: "She lost contact and we didn't know what happened."

Mr Yerby said it reminded him of when Nicole won Commonwealth Games Gold.

Then she hit a wall and only just kept her balance shortly before the sprint.

"She was 30 seconds behind, caught them and went right through to win in the Commonwealth Games.

"She was more behind then.

"When Hugh Porter BBC commentator said Where's Nicole?', I thought Oh no, not again'.

"We were sitting there until she went missing on the bend and when she started to catch up we were going up and down like yo-yos.

"When she got there I thought no one will beat her now'.

"As soon as she crossed the line there were tears and my heart was thumping - and then the phone started ringing and never stopped.

"The last phone call we had was at eight o'clock last night."

Now they are waiting with huge anticipation for tomorrow's women's time trial.

If Nicole gets another medal, it will be a perfect eighth birthday present for Stephanie, who will be cheering her eldest cousin on again.