91�ȱ�

Great Britain's Becky James has had a fantastic World Championships so far and I believe winning gold in the women's sprint and the keirin will be a huge turning point in her career.

Having won the world sprint title six times, I know that it is one of the hardest to win, both physically and mentally, so for her to do it so convincingly will be brilliant for her confidence.

It really is a huge achievement, especially after winning bronze in the team sprint and 500m time trial, and it's a good indicator of the direction Becky's career is headed as an athlete. I think a lot more titles will be going her way.

When I won my first world gold, which also happened to be the sprint title, it was the first time I felt that I really belonged in the team. Up until then, I felt I shouldn't really be there because everyone else had an Olympic or Commonwealth title.

But by winning that medal, it was like I earned my position and I had finally arrived on the scene.

Becky's success will put her in the spotlight so my advice would be "don't let those rainbow stripes [on the world champion's jersey] weigh heavy on your shoulders" because I found it really hard to race the next season feeling all eyes were on me.

There will also be the pressure from herself because when you've done it once, you don't want to give those jerseys back. You don't want to see someone else wearing it the following year.

Some people probably revel in wearing the jersey but personally I found it a bit challenging at first, I felt the pressure and I really struggled with it.

But Becky is a lot more confident than I am. She takes a lot in her stride and she has fantastic support from the coaches and her family and friends which is a great thing to have.

You could see after the women's sprint final how excited and bubbly she was. That's her all over. She really wasn't expecting to win gold and she was a bit overwhelmed.

She's a far better example of what you need to be world champion than I ever was. She's a lot more comfortable in a competition environment.

By winning gold, and in turn taking that title off me, Becky will automatically qualify for next year's World Championships, so she doesn't need to worry about tapering for World Cups to get qualifying points.

Instead, she can really focus on her training and be in the best form possible to attack the World Championships next year.

Ahead of Rio, the key is to gain as much experience as she can racing against her main rivals because you want to know you can beat everybody going into an Olympics.

She has not had many opportunities to race against all the girls in the field because I've been selected ahead of her. There are limited positions for each of the competing nations, so Becky's missed out. I've been a shadow hanging over her.

Now that I'm not around, it's her chance to get as much as she can out of being a top sprint rider.

Her performances in Minsk have shown that she clearly deserved to be competing. She's now the number one rider in the country and it's about time she had an opportunity to shine.

Two-time Olympic and nine-time world champion Victoria Pendleton was talking to 91�ȱ� Sport's Lawrence Barretto