Ath: Ohuruogu looks forward to a Freeman moment in 2012

AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2008
Ath: Ohuruogu looks forward to a Freeman moment in 2012

By Pirate Irwin

BEIJING, Aug 20 AFP - Great Britain's 400m Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu's beaming
smile lit up the Bird's Nest Stadium - now she's planning a repeat triumph on home ground
in London in 2012.

The 24-year-old was brought up in Stratford in the east of London, where the main stadium
is being built for the next Games.

"It (Stratford) is literally on my doorstep and 15 minutes away from where my parents
live and where I was brought up and lived all my life," she said.

"That would be quite something to come out on the track and compete in front of my
home fans ... Cathy Freeman all over again!" added Ohuruogu, referring to the Australian
icon who produced one of the great Olympic moments when winning the 400m title in Sydney
in 2000.

However, while the champion would appear to be the perfect poster girl for promoting
the Olympics, given her local roots, there will be those, not least the British Olympic
Association (BOA), who may not be so keen to have her all over the promotional material.

For Ohuruogu and the BOA are not exactly the best of friends.

Yesterday she produced a stunning run to eclipse hot favourite Sanya Richards in a
race that she could not have envisaged competing in a year ago.

Then she was awaiting the result of her appeal against the BOA's by-law forbidding
any athlete who has served a ban for infringing doping regulations to represent Great
Britain at the Olympics.

Ohuruogu, one of 10 children of Nigerian descent, won her appeal against the year-long
suspension imposed for having missed three drugs tests.

"I am a fighter and will always fight to the end. This is something I have learnt from
my childhood and it has only got stronger as I have grown older," she said.

"My parents instilled pretty strong values in all of us and I have retained them."

However, even in her moment of glory, when she added the Olympic title to her world
and Commonwealth crowns, Ohuruogu had to play a straight bat to loaded questions about
whether she deserved to be sitting where she was as Olympic champion.

"I don't really care what people think or say. They can say what they like. I came
her for a particular thing, I have got it and I am delighted with myself," said Ohuruogu.

"I have served my time and while I was stupid, it was not done out of a desire to cheat
the system, it was sheer vagueness and for that I could kick myself."

AFP jmt

KEYWORD: OLY08 ATH OHURUOGU

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