KATIE Metalli has revealed how a note of encouragement from Olympic hero Rebecca Romero helped spur her on to shattering a indoor rowing world record.

The Hillingdon Slipstreamer rowed a staggering 21,097 metres on a rowing machine last week in just one hour, 43 minutes and 40,6 seconds, shaving more than three hours off the previous record of 4.58.09 set by American Beonka Pope in 2004.

Metalli is now the proud world record holder of the half marathon indoor rowing in the 11-12 age category and joins the ranks of just 42 other lightweight women who have completed the distance in the past year. She is
now the 25th fastest lightweight female of any age group in the world this year.

The youngster said she took inspiration from an e-mail sent to her by Romero, a cycling gold medallist in Beijing last year and a silver medallist in rowing in 2004.

“I received a personal good luck e-mail from Rebecca Romero and put it somewhere I could see it on the day,” said Metalli. “With about 7 or 8k left to row, it really made the difference and I thought of her victory in Beijing and that spurred me on”.

Metalli, who on the day raised more than £50 for her school charity Spectrum, which supports autism sufferers, is no stranger to success. She currently leads the world best times in eight different distances this season and has previously won two British National titles.

She recently bagged her second silver medal at the National Junior Indoor Rowing Championships in London, repeating her position at the 2008 event.

Metalli, who has never rowed on water, is the current London Region Champion in the triathlon and was Slipstreamers' club champion last year in her age group.

If that is not enough Metalli, who trains three times a week at the Minet Park circuit, currently leads the National Cycling rankings for her category and has been a member of the British Cycling DHL Sprint School
development squad for the past two years.

She is now weighing up an attack on the current 1k and 10k world records before she becomes exempt on her 13th birthday next Wednesday (29th).