Michael Phillips
Monday August 13, 2007
The Guardian
Christine Ohuruogu was yesterday reminded that athletics pain is not all about fighting a doping offence and this time she did not mind what effect it had on her.
As she reached the final stages of the 200 metres at the Scottish Championships in Glasgow, the lactate in her muscles began to rise. “I relaxed and I did not panic,” she said. “As a 400m runner we are strong and we know how to deal with it. I just want to run.”
The times of the three victories Ohuruogu achieved at the Scotstoun Stadium this weekend will hardly feature prominently in her career because, had they really mattered, her performances would not have earned her a seat on the plane to Britain’s World Championships’ training camp in Macau last night.
But what she took with her to China, where she will spend 10 days before the team leave for Osaka, is the knowledge that she can mix it again on the competitive scene.
“It has been very productive,” she said. “I wanted a low-key meeting to get back. I did not want too much hassle.”
Ohuruogu’s run on Saturday was her first race for 379 days since she finished seventh in the 400m at last year’s Norwich Union London grand prix at Crystal Palace. Within a week of that event she was suspended from the sport for 12 months after confirmation she had missed three out-of-competition drugs tests.
During the past year she has contemplated her future and has broken down in tears regularly in the battle to prove her innocence. But in the back of her mind remained a determination to return to the sport for the World Championships which start in Japan on Saturday week.
Her ban ended seven days ago, she was selected for the team on Tuesday and after her races in Glasgow she is convinced she will have enough time to be ready to run faster in Osaka where she competes in the individual one-lap event and in the relay.
“What I gained from the weekend was just getting the rounds in my legs and being able to work at it,” said Ohuruogu, who won her heat of the 200m yesterday in 23.79 before running 23.71 in the final to beat Susan Deacon, the defending champion.
Ohuruogu had won the 400m the day before in 53.09, well outside of her personal best of 50.28, but she said: "The 400m was a bit disappointing but I wasn’t really able to prepare because I’ve had such a stressful week, so I am quite tired.
“It is alright training on your own but, if you cannot compete, it makes it hard. It was difficult to keep myself going but I will just see what happens at the World Championships. It should be interesting.”
Becky Lyne, Britain’s European 800m bronze medallist, will not be in Osaka after being given the third place in the team despite a season destroyed by injury.
The Sheffield runner has been forced to pull out after sustaining a recurrence of a calf problem. Jenny Meadows, who felt she should have been selected in the first place, has been called up to replace her.
Meadows had finished ahead of her rival at the London grand prix at Crystal Palace but was the first reserve because the selectors spoke of Lyne’s ability to produce at championships. “I was at the lowest of low points last week,” said Meadows.
“Selectors’ decisions have gone against me before but this one really hit me for six. I felt deflated. My reaction was ‘I don’t want to spend three and a half weeks on the other side of the world [as a reserve] with people who haven’t selected me.’ All of my training has been geared to running 800 in Osaka and I know I am in shape.”