i dont know about you

[Stevie Boy]

but its gets to me about this Christine Ohuruogu she missed 3 drugs tests and won an court case to compete in the olympics, but dwain chambers did a test, got caught, done his time and got told he couldnt compete, surely whats the difference, missing 3 tests surely shows you have soemthing to hide, so surely if DC missed his tests went to court over it he would being competeing, my opionion is that all this is one big joke

 

[mattb]

a little bit inconsistent in my opinion. i think chambers was only refused as it was so high profile and it would've made a mockery of british athletes and our drug policies

 

[mattb]

however, she won gold!

 

[Hiney]

a little bit inconsistent in my opinion. i think chambers was only refused as it was so high profile and it would've made a mockery of british athletes and our drug policies

Chambers' appeal was refused because he ACTUALLY TOOK loads of banned substances. He was caught, tried and is serving his time.

Ohurougo MISSED 3 tests, that's all. It doesn't prove she didn't take drugs but it doesn't PROVE she did either. You can bet your life she was has been tested to f*** since then so it's reasonable to assume she's clean.

To compare Chambers to Ohurougo is WRONG

 

[mattb]

I thought chambers served his entire ban?

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Ohuruogu took 14 tests, but missed 3 tests. Now Athletics is slightly different from working in an office when you know where you will be at a certain time if you were called upon randomly to take a test. Chambers took SEVEN banned substances.

 

[Barrel of Fun]

I thought chambers served his entire ban?

He has, but he is banned from competing in the Olympics for life. He was contesting that, as Christine did successfully.

 

[Cadiz Seagull]

Chambers' appeal was refused because he ACTUALLY TOOK loads of banned substances. He was caught, tried and is serving his time.

Ohurougo MISSED 3 tests, that's all. It doesn't prove she didn't take drugs but it doesn't PROVE she did either. You can bet your life she was has been tested to f*** since then so it's reasonable to assume she's clean.

To compare Chambers to Ohurougo is WRONG

What possible reason is there to miss 3 tests?

1, OK, but even that stretches the imagination for a professional athlete who knows - or should know - how important it is.

2, I just can't see why she would miss the second unless there was some breakdown in communication that I'm unaware of.

But 3? Come on! I'm all for innocent until proven guilty but this is stretching credulity to breaking point.

The whole thing stinks.

I think they made the right decision with Chambers and frankly I don't see the difference. If we are serious about getting drugs out of athletics what possible justification can there be?

Sends the wrong message, IMHO

 

[mattb]

I would agree, cadiz seagull

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Alone in the zone

The bitter experience of her ban for missing drugs tests has changed the world 400 metres champion. 'Most of the time I'm in my own world,' says Christine Ohuruogu

Anna Kessel The Observer, Sunday April 27 2008 Article history
Chistine Ohuruogu.


Christine Ohuruogu is one of the unlikeliest villains of British sport. It did not seem to matter that the well-mannered, church-going athlete was never found guilty of taking any drugs, the word that by association is explosive enough to derail careers and destroy reputations. In the furore that followed her missing three out-of-competition tests, Ohuruogu became stranded in a story beyond her control. Those who knew her well did not recognise the picture being painted.

UK Athletics confirmed that hers was a sin of forgetfulness, not deceit, and that there was 'no suggestion, nor any grounds for suspicion, that the offence may have been deliberate in order to prevent testing'.

During the 12-month ban from competition imposed in 2006, Ohuruogu had no income and wound up £20,000 in debt from legal fees. She was tested for drugs 14 times in the run-up to the world championships in Osaka last year, but this did not satisfy the sceptics. Ohuruogu was casually referred to as a 'drugs cheat'. The media coverage and reaction from the general public was so vitriolic it was frightening.

The day after Ohuruogu's 400 metres victory in Osaka she was subjected to a personal attack in The Sun. 'Please don't make this the face of 2012', ran the headline alongside a picture of a smiling Ohuruogu. On BBC Five Live, presenter Victoria Derbyshire laid into her as she was forced once again to explain how she had missed three tests. A weary Ohuruogu, who by now had had 12 months of this kind of questioning, said: 'I've explained and explained myself to two panels.' But Derbyshire was having none of it: 'I know where I am Monday to Friday between 9am and 12 noon - I'm at work!'

The public made their feelings clear when they snubbed Ohuruogu in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year poll - 0.71 per cent of the votes was the lowest ever figure. It was not the reception you would expect for a newly crowned British world champion and winner of Britain's only individual gold medal at the championships.

When she sits down to talk, Ohuruogu is tight-lipped. The mouth that once so easily broke into a smile is practically clamped shut. Here is a woman who has had quite enough of the media. The experience has changed her outlook on the world.

'I've become more cynical than I was before,' she says. 'Hopefully I'm not as naïve as I was. There's a lot going on and I didn't see all that before. Now my eyes have been opened. Obviously you're going to change, hopefully it's been for the better, I don't think I've become a nasty person.

'I thought things might have turned out different. I don't think I realised the severity of the whole thing.' At that Ohuruogu lets out a deep laugh: 'I know, I know. I just thought that because I hadn't done anything wrong, I didn't think it would escalate in the way that it did. But it did. So it happened and I just had to get on with it.'

This is the thing about Ohuruogu, she is disarmingly honest. When she tells the story of how she missed her drugs tests, there is so much detail: the assignment she was rushing to finish, changing training venues at the last minute, rushing from Mile End to Crystal Palace as a new driver, uncomfortable with the A12, nervous about going into fifth gear. Her little sister was in the car, she felt responsible. It is like listening to a friend confiding the small stresses of life, the little things that somehow become big things. In Ohuruogu's case, very big things.

'That was the upsetting thing, but you have to understand the world you're in,' she says. 'That's what sells papers. They want big headlines. Commonwealth gold medallist, ban and drugs, it makes a nice story. I did get really upset.'

She wonders out loud why this was. 'You know, it wasn't true. I'm an honest person so I couldn't understand why people were writing horrible things about me. I thought how can they sleep at night? Knowing that they're trying to ruin someone else's career and someone else's life? Like don't you guys have kids? I was only 22 at the time. Don't they have families? How would they have felt if someone had treated their children like that? You want to lash out. It was hard for my parents. They didn't know what to do What could they do?'

For a family as close as the Ohuruogus - Christine is one of eight children - it was a devastating period. As a quiet kid at school, Ohuruogu had always relied on her older brother Obi to fight her battles. 'He was pretty powerless. I mean who was he going to beat up? He was constantly telling me not to worry and making sure that I was training hard. He would tell me that everyone at work was rooting for me. He was unnecessarily nice to me, which was weird as we used to punch each other. It was a difficult time for all of us.

'I moved out of my family home, but I was a recluse. My mum always said to me, "You don't hide because you have nothing to hide from." But I didn't go out if I didn't have to. It was training, home, training, home, I was that focused I probably wouldn't have gone anywhere else anyway.'

After the ban, after the win in Osaka, and the subsequent overturning of her Olympic ban, Ohuruogu bypassed this year's indoor season. Still her name was on people's lips. As the return of Dwain Chambers blew up into a huge story, almost every mention of the athlete who had admitted to taking drugs was accompanied by a mention of Ohuruogu. She was frequently asked if she could feel for what he was going through.

'I don't like commenting on Dwain. He's put his hand up to what he did and he's trying to move on, whether or not he should be in the sport I don't feel it's my place to comment. Some people think our circumstances are similar, although they are actually completely different.

'It seems people think that I should know what he's going through, but I didn't do anything wrong so... I was annoyed that when they dig up his case they dig up mine.'

Ohuruogu still has not watched the tape of her gold-medal-winning race in Osaka. 'I don't need to, I have it in my head. Maybe when I finish and I retire, I'll appreciate it a lot more. I've earned it and it's there.'

She is often asked whether she thinks she would have won that race without the painful year that preceded it. 'The most honest answer I can give you is that we just don't know. We don't know because it didn't happen. I don't know. I don't know.'

She looks into the distance. 'When anyone runs they run with a certain amount of baggage, they always have something up there that is going to make them run fast. In the relay there was an athlete running who had a wedding to pay off, everyone has something that makes them run that bit faster. But unless you always feel that you want to win and you have something to prove then what are you there for? That should always be your state of mind when you step on the line. I was just happy to be there. I just wanted to make the year worth it. I wanted to have something that came out of that year, something positive had to come out of it.'

This summer in Beijing the spotlight will be on Ohuruogu once again. This time she seems well prepared to cope with it. 'Last year taught me that the only thing I need to do is stay focused, everything else is irrelevant. I've learned to have tunnel vision. Most of the time I'm in my own world. I'm used to being left alone.

'When I won the gold medal I didn't realise what I'd done. When I retire I'll look back on it all. It is hard to see it before then.'

 

[captainmorganrum]

I didn't see any of the other competitors congratulate her.
Watched the replay and everyone cold shouldered her.
She was just left on the track by herself.
That's telling that is.

 

[Bob!]

I'm with BoF on this one, Ohurugu is not a drugs cheat, merely a poor timekeeper.

 

[Bad Ash]

I'm with BoF on this one, Ohurugu is not a drugs cheat, merely a poor timekeeper.

Knowing that my career depended upon it, I'd like to think that I'd start managing my time better after missing the first test, not to mention the second.

 

[mattb]

yes, she has nobody to blame but herself for her poor(ish) reputation, especially amongst other athletes.

i don't hold anything against her, though. just glad to have GB win a gold on the track!

 

[Bob!]

Quote from her Coach after winning World Champs Gold lat year

"You've got to remember she was tested the weekend before she missed the last test and on the Friday after. So what can you have? Stuff in your system, and it disappears in five days? Come on. When you have been caught then fair enough, but we ain't doing anything wrong. The talent that Christine has is natural."

Athletics: Ohuruogu hits back at critics of gold medal feat - Athletics, More Sports - The Independent

 

[Uncle Buck]

Ask the Safety Officer.

 

[portlock seagull]

As 5 live said, it's great she won but unlike the rest of team GB hers is tinged with doubt and she can't escape that, fair or unfair.

 

[Slowhand]

I didn't see any of the other competitors congratulate her.
Watched the replay and everyone cold shouldered her.
She was just left on the track by herself.
That's telling that is.

I think you need to watch it again.

 

[Gazwag]

As 5 live said, it's great she won but unlike the rest of team GB hers is tinged with doubt and she can't escape that, fair or unfair.

A certain defender served his ban as he went shopping instead of having a drug test which he forgot about, yet nobody mentions this when he is made England Captain

 

[Bad Ash]

I think you need to watch it again.

I saw it the same way as captainmorganrum. When she won she collapsed to the track, none of her fellow competitors were close by or came and congratulated her. It was only after a minute that she got up and approached them to shake their hands.