30 August 2007
A drugs cheat by another name...
Christine Ohuruogu: The girl who wonShe was meant to be the face of the London 2012 Olympics until a drugs scandal threatened to wreck her career.
But yesterday the British athlete Christine Ohuruogu made a triumphant return to sport with a stunning victory in the 400 metres at the World Athletics Championships in Japan. The 23-year-old - who was born and grew up in east London - wiped away tears as she stood on the podium and expressed her joy at her astonishing comeback. "Every single day I did my work - not always sure what I was working for but I always had the Worlds in mind. It was a dream. I hoped I would and now I've done it." Her victory is all the more remarkable because she only took up athletics seriously seven years ago.
Ohuruogu was born to parents who had only recently moved to Britain from Nigeria, and grew up as one of seven children in Stratford, east London - just two miles away from the planned Olympic village. Her father Jonathan developed a successful computer business while her mother Patience worked for the Inland Revenue. With their support she studied hard at school as well as becoming talented at sport and still found time to attend church every Sunday. But her first love was netball, which she began playing when she was nine and at which went on to represent England in under-17 and under-19 competitions. Although she claimed athletics was "boring", she was eventually persuaded to join her local club, Newham and Essex Beagles, where her ability was soon noticed. By the time she was 17 she had taken part in her first international competition. However, she continued to play netball and because she also had to take time out because of a hip problem, it was not until 2003 that she committed fully to athletics, winning two bronze medals at the European junior championships. Despite her ever more punishing training schedule and time spent travelling to races, Ohuruogu made sure she did not neglect her education and gained a 2:1 degree in linguistics from University College London in 2005, having previously achieved 10 GCSEs and four A-Levels. Before she started to earn money by winning races she worked as a waitress and had a part-time job doing filing for a hospital.
In 2005 it seemed as though her time had come. She won a bronze medal in the World Championships in Helsinki as part of the women's 4x400m relay. After London was chosen to host the 2012 Olympics, Ohuruogu was chosen as the "face" of the games. Then at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne the following year she unexpectedly won the 400m gold and was caught up in a disqualification controversy when her relay team were denied the gold medal they thought they had won. Ohuruogu ran in the final leg of the relay and after she finished first the team completed a victory lap and gave speeches. Then an Australian competitor complained she had been obstructed during one of the baton changes and England were disqualified. She was then suspended from taking part in the European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg last year having missed three drugs tests.
On each occasion drug testing officers from UK Sport planned to test her she failed to turn up at the address provided, later blaming a change in her training circumstances. Ohuruogu lost her lottery support and considered retiring from athletics completely. "I was pretty close. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't," she said. "I was very angry because it happened too fast and I wasn't prepared for that and I didn't think it would have escalated the way it did." As well as a one-year ban from competitive races, the British Olympic Association also barred her from competing in any future Olympic Games for Great Britain, a huge blow for the athlete as well as the organisers who thought her African heritage and east London upbringing would make her the perfect way to promote the multi-cultural city and the sporting event. Just a few weeks ago she vowed to leave Britain to compete in the Olympics for another country, possibly Nigeria, if the ban is not overturned.
But many in the sport think her appeal, to be heard in the next few weeks, will succeed given that she was only "forgetful" and there was no evidence she took any performance-enhancing drugs. Her return from exile began just one day after she completed her one-year ban, when Ohuruogu was selected for the British team at the World Championships. As well as the gold medal, she took away £30,000 from yesterday's race and an Alfa Romeo car, which will help repay some of the debts she ran up during her ban. She recently admitted owing some £20,000 in legal fees after launching a failed appeal against the penalty at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/index.jhtml;jsessionid=DKDZRRQPVVVJJQFIQMFCFFWAVCBQYIV0
More from Steve Cram in the Guardian with debate at the bottom.
Ollie says: she can't prove she's clean and she can't prove she's not. She has stolen a place in the finals from an athlete who is clean and has proved it and has effectively stolen the gold medal and £30,000 from fellow Brit Nicola Sanders.
How did she make the team anyway, she didn't compete in the recent trails, which all other GB athletes did as she was still banned until the day after. British athletics bosses ought to be sending the message that doping and missing tests for any reason is not the way forward. This woman was being paid alot of money from the Lottery funds to train and be a professional athlete and that includes not missing drugs tests because she forgot. She has never shown remorse and has whinged throughout her year ban about missing the tests and not being eligble for future Olympics. This is not a athlete I want representing me on the track. Let her pack her bags a go to Nigeria, they can have the drug-tainted runner.
Saggy trouser ban hit by race and liberty row.
Plans to ban low-slung, underwear-exposing trousers have provoked allegations of racism and the restriction of personal freedom after councilors in Atlanta declared it should be the first major city to tackle "offensive dressing".Officials want to impose a $100 (£50) fine and community service for offensive dressing after complaints not only of indecency but of lowering the image of the black community, where the fashion began. For several years, American youths, male and female, have worn oversize trousers around their hips, or even lower, in a trend exported overseas - not least to Britain. Held up with a belt and periodic tugs, they often reveal boxer shorts or, in the ca
se of girls, thong underwear.
Critics have claimed the measure would allow police to target young black males. "This would establish an additional type of racial profiling," said Debbie Seagraves, of the Georgia state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union. But at a heated meeting in Atlanta, the division was between old and young - or, perhaps, between non-hip and hip. In America few issues have divided the generations as strongly since the start of rock 'n' roll.
The motion was proposed by a black councilors, C T Martin, who has described sagging trousers as an "epidemic" that is a "major concern" around the country. "I don't want young people thinking half-dressing is the way to go. I want them to think about their future," he said. He was supported from the large audience by James Allen, 76, who said he would start a "belt brigade" to patrol the streets for inappropriate trouser-heights. "It bothers me as a black man," he told the meeting. "They dress down. They talk down. Some of the things they do are downright lowdown. It sickens me. We need to teach them in a way they will become prospects, not suspects." The elderly and middle-aged in the hall then displayed some of the poor behavior they bemoan in the young, booing and hissing 19-year-old James Fancy as he pulled his shorts down to expose striped boxers, while his friend Tabby Chase, 30, stood up to reveal a bra under a fishnet shirt. Someone was heard to mutter: "Disgusting!"
Both underwear flashers held up a sign saying "Clothes are not a crime". They were supported by Jimmy Person, 34. "Maybe young people should be more tasteful," he said, "but let young people decide for themselves." The meeting ended with the council members showing their age, or perhaps their wisdom, and setting up a task force to look into the issue further.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/30/wsaggy130.xml
Ollie says: I'm all for the kids to some up with thier own fashions and fads, but this just is just asking for the public to walk up behind these guys, pull down the rest of the trousers or shorts and run off without fear that the fashionista of giving chase.
It would be a funny cartoon moment!
