Ohuruogu hopes to retain Olympic title
Britain’s only reigning athletics Olympic champion will have to overcome the odds to retain her track and field title in London, but the Newham-raised athlete is no stranger to adversity.
When Christine Ohuruogu won gold in Beijing, she defied expectations despite being world champion. Her win in the 400m track and field final was the result of flawless tactics and a strong finish while her rivals, including the favourite Sanya Richards-Ross, faded allowing her to win the gold with her second-fastest time.
The victory was almost a carbon copy of the previous year’s World Championship in Osaka when she defeated rivals who were faster on paper.
In both years she started her season late. In 2008, Ms Ohuruogu missed the early part of the season due to injury while in 2007, she was banned from competition until early August.
Competition ban
In 2006 she was one of a handful of athletes who were caught out by a more rigorous out-of-competition drugs testing regime shortly after it was introduced by UK sporting authorities.
She was banned for after missing her testing window on three occasions, although sporting authorities acknowledged this was not deliberate and she had taken and passed dozens of other tests during the nine-month period.
After serving her ban, she returned to the sport winning the World Championship in her comeback season and went on to take the Olympic title.
The previous two seasons she did not make the starting line at major championships. Injuries put her out of the 2009 World Championships and the 2010 Commonwealth Games and European Championship.
Home grown champion
This season, her preparations have been almost textbook, although she is ranked eleventh fastest in the world.
Today’s competition follows a difficult couple of years for the 28-year-old. Last year in Daegu, she was disqualified in her heat after a false start – a highly unusual occurrence in the 400 metres.
Ms Ohuruogu grew up less than a mile from the London 2012 stadium in Stratford and pursued her athletics career while studying Linguistics at University College London.
A trio of Russian athletes stand in Ms Ohuruogu’s way today, as do the more familiar rivals of Ms Richards-Ross and Jamaica’s Novlene Williams-Mills. But her competitors will be wary of an athlete who has the potential and tactical nous to spring a surprise.