OHURUOGU SHOCKED BY ‘APPALLING’ RUN
Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu admits she has plenty of work to do before the World Championships after a run she described as “really appalling” in the Aviva London Grand Prix.
Ohuruogu trailed in last in the 400 metres in 51.87 seconds at Crystal Palace, more than two seconds behind winner Sanya Richards-Ross and admitted: “I really don’t know what happened. I felt really good. I am very, very shocked, that was really appalling.”
Ohuruogu has been plagued by injuries this year and could only finish third behind hurdles specialist Perri Shakes-Drayton and Shana Cox at the trials last weekend.
The 27-year-old has not broken 50 seconds since the Olympic final in 2008, while her season’s best of 51.49 seconds leaves her outside the top 30 in the world rankings.
“I have to be realistic,” she added.
"I have not done as much training. I am trying to catch up. There’s a lot of work to do, a lot to catch up on. It’s about what we can realistically do in Daegu.
"It’s about putting the work back in the tank. I have lost a lot of time but I don’t want to go to Daegu in a hot mess. It’s a matter of seeing where we can sharpen up in the time we have.
"It is not that easy. It is hard to drop times. You cannot wake up one morning and say I am going to run these times. I thought maybe I could do something crazy but I have not done the work.
“I will still go anyway to Daegu. The world champs will take care of themselves and I have to make sure I get myself there in the best shape.”
It was a sobering day for Britain’s athletes, with defending world champion Phillips Idowu only third in the triple jump with 17.07m, way down on American winner Christian Taylor (17.68m).
“To be honest I don’t really care,” Idowu admitted.
"No-one’s going to look back in a month’s time and say ‘I won Crystal Palace.’ All I’m focused on now is winning gold in Daegu.
"I wasn’t expecting massive jumps. I thought I would be able to pull out something which would be good enough to win but like I said last week, I wasn’t 100%.
“I’ve been working quite hard and all my thoughts have turned to Daegu and I’m in that preparation phase. The work I’m doing in training is not conducive in putting in a great performance out there right now. It’s worked for the last two years and I don’t see why it won’t work now.”
Britain’s only winner on the second day of competition was Lisa Dobriskey, who believes she can challenge for a medal in Daegu later this month.
Dobriskey was just 0.01 seconds away from gold at the last World Championships in Berlin, but has suffered badly with injuries since then and is due to undergo painkilling injections to ease a back injury shortly.
However, the 27-year-old recorded her first victory of the season in the 1500 metres at Crystal Palce, holding off team-mate Hannah England to reverse the positions from last week’s trials.
“It’s such a nice feeling to win a race, I’d not won all season,” Dobriskey said. “It’s not nice trundling in ninth or 10th in Diamond League meetings. I know I am better than that. You just have to hold on to that belief. I would be silly to go there (Daegu) and not aim for a medal. I am working hard and I think it will come. I can turn things around quite quickly.”
Arguably the best performance however came from 37-year-old Helen Clitheroe, who took almost 23 seconds off her personal best to finish second in the 5,000m and achieve the ‘A’ qualifying standard for Daegu.
For once Britain’s selectors have a dilemma over the third place in the team for the men’s discus, where Brett Morse looks to have the upper hand after again finishing ahead of British record holder Lawrence Okoye.
Morse was third in the trials and Okoye fifth, while Morse threw 61.96m to finish eighth at Crystal Palace and Okoye only managed 58.61 to be ninth.
Okoye said: “I’ve had a great year but I had a bad day today and I’m going to finish my season early and start getting prepared for next year. I said from the start that I need to be in peak form next year so the extra five weeks training I’ll get from not going to the Worlds is awesome.”