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The Olympic champion says defending her 400m title on her own doorstep has greater resonance “Whether or not I’m the face of the London Olympics doesn’t really bother me,” Christine Ohuruogu says with the same certainty which underpins the fact that the 2012 Games begin in Stratford a yearon Wednesday. “What matters most to me is that the Olympics are in my borough. It’s being held in the streets where I grew up. I lived there long before we got the Games and I still live there now. That’s why it doesn’t matter if I’m the public face of the Games or not. It has a far more personal meaning to me.” Six years ago, when London unexpectedly won the Olympic bid, Ohuruogu was picked out as “the face” that would represent her home city in the long build-up to an extravagant sporting showcase. Born in Newham, as one of a family of eight children to Nigerian immigrants, Ohuruogu had lived her whole life in Stratford. She possessed an athletic prowess that was supplemented by an obvious intelligence and gritty resolve. Ohuruogu was on her way to obtaining a linguistics degree at University College London and becoming a potential Olympic 400m champion. Yet, after she was banned from international athletics for a year in the summer of 2006, having missed three different drug tests, Ohuruogu was removed from the posters advertising 2012. Even if it was widely accepted that her failure to stick to the schedule of training given to the doping authorities was caused by her youthful scattiness, rather than anything sinister, Ohuruogu’s reputation was tainted. But just weeks after her ban ended she won an astonishing 400m final at the world championships. A year later, in Beijing, she repeated the feat by winning the 2008 Olympic title. Next year, she will be Britain’s only defending champion on the Olympic track. She will run, however, for herself and her family rather than as the “poster girl” for the London Games. That burden, as tricky as it is weighty, now belongs to Jessica Ennis. “I’ve got a bigger message to convey,” Ohuruogu says as she shrugs aside the loss of her wider public role. “I know Stratford. I know the people. I belong to the community. It’s my home.” The 27-year-old looks up and repeats that phrase. “It’s my home. The Olympics are special to us here in Stratford because we live here. Even though everyone else is also looking forward to the Games it’s much more personal to us.” Ohuruogu is often criticised for being aloof. But whenever I meet her I’m struck most by how much she laughs. An interview with a supposedly complicated and suspicious woman is most often punctuated by mirth. “Can I boast here?” she asks. “I think my family home is closer to the Olympic Stadium than anyone else’s. I’m less than a mile away.” Which other athlete can rival her proximity to the stadium? “Phillips [Idowu] is not too far behind. He’s from Hackney. Perri Shakes-Drayton [the 400m hurdler] is in Bow. From Mile End you can run down the high road and you’re in Stratford. But I know my house is the closest!” Ricky Simms, who manages both Ohuruogu and Usain Bolt, ambles past and suggests staging a race between the East End Olympians – with each of them starting from their family home and seeing who might reach the stadium first. The sprinter Jeanette Kwakye could complete the quartet and make a real race of it. “But Jeanette was born in Walthamstow and grew up in Chingford,” Ohuruogu counters. “The rest of them can run but I can walk it in minutes and still win.” Another jangling laugh erupts from Ohuruogu before she remembers how she and her older brother, Obi, used to cycle around Stratford as kids. “Obi and me had a great time. We’d go all over the place and I guess the only part we avoided was where the stadium is now. Back then it was all industrial and it wasn’t a very nice area. “But I remember the old library before it got moved to the centre of town. You had to be so quiet there and I liked it – much more than the station underpass. You know where Sainsbury’s is now – near the station? Well, then you could use the underpass to get to the station. But you’d never walk there at night. It was very smelly and nasty – just like the old bus station. Since the Olympic bid Stratford feels much more modern but I’m happy I can say I was there way back when. I can remember everything.” Does she get stopped a lot by strangers in Stratford? “It depends on my hair. If the braids are in they recognise me – but before that they look at me as if they know me but they don’t say anything then. I’m always knocking around and I took my little brothers to B&Q the other day and they loved it. This one man stopped me and said: ‘Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude. So don’t be offended. But are you still running?’ I said: ‘Yeah, I’m definitely still running – just not very fast.’” Ohuruogu’s laugh echoes again. But she has been so affected by injury over the past two years that uncertainty over her career is understandable. Last Friday night, in Barcelona, Ohuruogu won the 400m in her best time of the season, 51.49sec, to defeat a field which included her British rivals Nicola Sanders and Lee McConnell. But she has not raced seriously since she lost her world championship title in 2009 to America’s Sanya Richards-Ross. Even then she suffered with her hamstring – but that problem appears minor compared to recent travails. “I tore my quad last year just before the Europeans,” she says, pointing to her upper left leg. “I tore it from the hip which basically means the muscle is a bit shorter. I rehabbed it really well but because the muscle is short it took a while to get used to the workload. The problem is that the muscle needs to be worked but you need to work it in a certain way – you can’t just go in at the deep end. I had to get it back slowly because the whole construction around my leg is quite new. I feel fine now – mainly because I’ve learnt a lot over the last couple of years. “You can’t get too stressed about it. So it’s just a step-by-step process. After Barcelona it’s the British trials [this coming weekend] and then I’m looking forward to running in the Aviva London Grand Prix at Crystal Palace [on 5-6 August]. I should be ready for the world championships [in South Korea] at the end of August.” Is there any doubt about her qualifying for the worlds? “I’ve never been in this situation before where I’ve entered the trails and not already qualified,” she says. “My qualification is pretty much dependent on how I do in the trials. Winning would be good! But, firstly, I have to show fitness and form. They will take into account my past record but they have to be fair. You can’t expect any favours.” It will be a major surprise if Ohuruogu does not build on her encouraging return in Barcelona and clinch her 400m place. But she faces intensified competition in Korea as her familiar rivals, Richards-Ross and Amantle Montsho from Botswana, are now joined by Allyson Felix, the 200m US star who has beaten Ohuruogu in two encounters over 400m. “Allyson Felix is a good 400m runner,” Ohuruogu says. “She’s already proved that and it makes it harder. But Monstho is the most consistent 400m runner. We’ve got a very strong Jamaican team to come out but I don’t worry about my rivals. I know they’ll all be there.” Ohuruogu has proved her ability in the past to overcome a difficult buildup and to show the most formidable determination and icy composure to secure hugely significant victories. Even if it will be hard for her to win a medal in Korea, can she succeed? “After the last couple of years what’s important is that I just get through the year in the best shape. This is just another springboard to that. I just want to get to the worlds and come out in one piece.” Her current ambitions might be understandably muted but it is clear that the Olympics matter most to her. Wednesday’s year-to-go milestone, she says, “makes it seem very real. But it would be disastrous if you got too caught up in it. Once the worlds are out of the way it will be different. You can face it then as you would face any championship that is looming on the horizon.” Ohuruogu has slowly been redeemed and she seems to relish the fact that she features with Ennis among a small group of athletes appearing in a new Aviva television advert that celebrates British track and field success. Her good cheer has also been bolstered by regular training sessions in Jamaica at the same camp as Bolt. “Culturally they’re far more laid back,” she says of the Jamaicans. “They work hard but then they switch off. And if they’re injured they leave it alone. They do what they can and then they go home and rest. Here, you scream and cry and worry and fret and say: ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh …’ I don’t think that’s very healthy.” The most exhilarating night in the Olympic Stadium at London 2012 will feature both the men’s 100m and the women’s 400m final. And, even more than a potentially blistering run by Bolt, the sight of a 28-year-old woman from Stratford trying to defend her Olympic crown on a track less than a mile from her home could offer the most meaningful race of all. Ohuruogu takes in a deep breath and nods intently at the prospect. “I have the confidence in whatever I do,” she says, “and the strength to handle whatever happens.” Aviva has been supporting British athletes since 1999. Aviva GB&NI athletes will star in a new TV advert to be aired from 27 July. Visit aviva.co.uk/athletics Christine Ohuruogu Olympics 2012: Athletics Olympic Games 2012 Athletics Donald McRae guardian.co.uk