The mother of Olympic hero Wendy Houvenaghel last night revealed that her daughter plans to come home within the next fortnight.

May McLean and her husband Phillip watched their daughter’s bid to become the first person from Northern Ireland to strike gold at the Olympics since Mary Peters in 1972.

Although she fell just short in the final, Mrs McLean said her daughter was “over the moon” at winning the silver medal just six years after taking up the sport.

Wendy (34), who now lives in Cornwall with her English husband Ian, woke her mum up at 12.30am yesterday when she rang her at her home in Co Londonderry village of Upperlands.

“She told me in the middle of the night that she will be home shortly,” said the proud mum.

“She should be here within the next couple of weeks.”

Mrs McLean said her phone hadn’t stopped ringing since word spread of Wendy’s fantastic achievement.

She said the family felt “brilliant”, adding: “I think we’re all on a high. She’s over the moon.”

She added that she and Phillip had watched the final of the women’s 3,000-metre individual pursuit on television at the Killyhevlin hotel in Co Fermanagh, where they were attending a vintage rally.

But the nervous parents decided to watch from their hotel room.

Back in Upperlands, all of the neighbours were also glued to the television as Wendy took on fellow Great Britain cyclist Rebecca Romero in a final race that determined who finished with gold, and who picked up the silver.

“It was quite an atmosphere at the hotel,” said Mrs McLean.

“The neighbours have been sitting at their TVs all weekend. It’s something else.

“I think she’s done brilliantly, especially as she only turned professional about three years ago, and she’s reached Olympic level.

“She played hockey at school and she started off with horseriding before she went to university in Dundee, then she went to running and did the London marathon. She got quite a few medals in running.”

But it was after marrying her husband that Wendy discovered her ability at cycling.

Her mother said: “Ian is a cyclist but not a professional. She was soon beating him up hills.”

Wendy, a former pupil of Rainey Endowed school in Magherafelt, is an associate in a dental practice in Newquay but went into cycling full-time in 2006 in her bid to do well at the Olympics.

“She said she was going in to give it her best and see how she did,” said Mrs McLean.

“I think she did awfully well and I’m so proud of her. It’s brilliant, it’s just brilliant.”

Boxer Wayne McCullough was the last Olympic medal winner from Northern Ireland in an individual sport, when he picked up silver for Ireland in Barcelona in 1992.