Christine Ohuruogu
Encyclopedia
Christine Ijeoma Ohuruogu MBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (born 17 May 1984) is an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 athlete, who specialises in the 400 metres
400 metres
The 400 metres, or 400 metre dash, is a common sprinting event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 . On a standard outdoor running track, it is exactly one lap around the track. Runners start in staggered positions and...

; the event for which she is the current Olympic
Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games or the Games of the Olympiad are an international multi-sport event, occurring every four years, organized by the International Olympic Committee. Medals are awarded in each event, with gold medals for first place, silver for second and bronze for third, a tradition that...

 and former World and Commonwealth
Commonwealth Games
The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years....

 Champion. Her victory in the Beijing Games
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

 was the 50th gold medal
Gold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...

 for Great Britain in Athletics at the Olympics.

Ohuruogu's Personal Best of 49.61 ranks her third amongst British women 400 m runners, behind fellow Olympic medallists Kathy Cook
Kathy Cook
Kathryn Jane Cook is one of the most successful female sprinters in British athletics history....

 and Katharine Merry
Katharine Merry
Katharine Merry is a former English female sprinter.-Career:A member of the Birchfield Harriers athletics club, Merry won a bronze medal in the 400 metre sprint at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.Merry had a career that spanned 20 years. Aged 12 she topped the UK Under 13 Rankings in...

.

Biography

Born to Igbo
Igbo people
Igbo people, also referred to as the Ibo, Ebo, Eboans or Heebo are an ethnic group living chiefly in southeastern Nigeria. They speak Igbo, which includes various Igboid languages and dialects; today, a majority of them speak English alongside Igbo as a result of British colonialism...

 Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

n parents in Newham
London Borough of Newham
The London Borough of Newham is a London borough formed from the towns of West Ham and East Ham, within East London.It is situated east of the City of London, and is north of the River Thames. According to 2006 estimates, Newham has one of the highest ethnic minority populations of all the...

, east London, she was raised less than one mile from the 2012 Summer Olympics
2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the "London 2012 Olympic Games", are scheduled to take place in London, England, United Kingdom from 27 July to 12 August 2012...

 stadium
Olympic Stadium (London)
The London Olympic Stadium will be the centrepiece of the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics. The stadium is located at Marshgate Lane in Stratford in the Lower Lea Valley and has capacity for the Games of approximately 80,000 making it temporarily the third largest stadium in Britain behind...

 in Stratford
Stratford, London
Stratford is a place in the London Borough of Newham, England. It is located east northeast of Charing Cross and is one of the major centres identified in the London Plan. It was historically an agrarian settlement in the ancient parish of West Ham, which transformed into an industrial suburb...

. Ohuruogu studied at University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

, where she graduated in Linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....

 in 2005. She also played netball during her undergraduate studies. Christine has 8 siblings, one of whom is Victoria Ohuruogu, a top sprints competitor in her age group. She also went to St. Edwards Church of England School
St. Edwards Church of England School
St. Edward's Church of England Comprehensive School is a coeducational school for eleven to eighteen year olds in Romford, Greater London, England. It is a specialised Language College and Science College, and also contains a sixth form for sixteen to eighteen year olds...

, Romford, Essex and Trinity Catholic High School, Woodford Green
Trinity Catholic High School, Woodford Green
Trinity Catholic High School is a co-educational, Catholic comprehensive school located in Woodford Green, Greater London, England. It is split between two sites, with years 7-9 on the Lower Site, Sydney Road, and years 10-13 on Upper Site, Mornington Road. There are approximately 1750 pupils, with...

, Essex.

Ohuruogu is a member of Newham and Essex Beagles
Newham and Essex Beagles
Newham and Essex Beagles are one of the leading athletics clubs in Great Britain.The club was formed in 1887 as the Beaumont Harriers but became the Beagles in July 1891. Headquarters are at the Terence McMillan Stadium in the London Borough of Newham, East London...

 Athletics Club.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 New Year Honours.

Athletics career

In 2003 Ohuruogu was a bronze medal
Bronze medal
A bronze medal is a medal awarded to the third place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The practice of awarding bronze third place medals began at the 1904 Olympic Games in St...

list at 400 m at the European Junior Championships. She became the AAA champion in the 400 m in 2004, was a semi-finalist in the 400 m at the Athens Olympics of 2004, also taking part in the 4 x 400 m relay
4 x 400 metres relay
The 4 x 400 meters relay or long relay is an athletics track event in which teams comprise four runners who each complete 400 meters or one lap. It is traditionally the final event of a track meet. At top class events, the first 500 meters is run in lanes...

 team that finished 4th. In the 2005 European Under 23 Championships she took the silver medal
Silver medal
A silver medal is a medal awarded to the second place finisher of contests such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, and contests with similar formats....

, losing individual gold by a hundredth of a second. She also won silver in the 4 x 400 m relay.

After reaching the semi-final at the 400 m at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics
2005 World Championships in Athletics
The 10th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held in the Olympic Stadium, Helsinki, Finland , the site of the first IAAF World Championships in 1983. One theme of the 2005 championships was paralympic sports, some of...

 she won a bronze medal in the women's 4 x 400 m relay together with Lee McConnell
Lee McConnell
Lee McConnell is a Scottish athlete, who competes in the 400 metres. She attended Holyrood R.C. Secondary School in Glasgow before graduating from Loughborough University in 2000 with a degree in Sports Science. She became the Scottish 200 metres champion in 2002, and 2005. She also won the 400...

, Donna Fraser
Donna Fraser
Donna Karen Fraser in Thornton Heath, Croydon is an English athlete who mainly competed in the 200 and 400 metres.-Career:...

 and Nicola Sanders
Nicola Sanders
Nicola Clare Sanders is a British sprinter and hurdler.-Early achievements:Nicola won a bronze medal in the 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships in Riga at 400 m hurdles. That same year she was 4th in the 400 m hurdles at the World Youth Championships...

.

She won a gold medal for England in the 400 m at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Athletics at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, the athletics events were held in Melbourne, Australia from 19 March to 25 March 2006. A total of 47 events were contested, of which 24 by male and 23 by female athletes. Furthermore, three men's and three women's disability events were held within the programme...

 in a personal best time of 50.28 seconds, beating favourite Tonique Williams-Darling
Tonique Williams-Darling
Tonique Williams-Darling is a Bahamian sprint athlete. She won the gold medal in the 400 meters at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.-College:...

 in both her semi-final and the final.

Within 24 days of the end of her year-long competition suspension she returned to surprise the field and win the gold medal at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka
2007 World Championships in Athletics
The 11th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations , were held at Nagai Stadium in Osaka, Japan from 24 August to 2 September 2007...

. Fellow British athlete, Nicola Sanders
Nicola Sanders
Nicola Clare Sanders is a British sprinter and hurdler.-Early achievements:Nicola won a bronze medal in the 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships in Riga at 400 m hurdles. That same year she was 4th in the 400 m hurdles at the World Youth Championships...

 took the silver with Novlene Williams
Novlene Williams
Novlene Hilaire Williams-Mills is a track and field athlete, competing internationally for Jamaica. She was initially a bronze medalist in the 4 x 400 m relay at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece...

 of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 in third. Ohuruogu had won all three of her individual races at the world championships - her heat, her semi-final, plus the final. The fastest woman in the world, Sanya Richards
Sanya Richards
Sanya Richards-Ross is a track and field athlete who competes internationally for the United States. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 4×400 meters relay at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, an individual bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics for the 400 m, and a gold medal in the 2009...

, did not qualify for the World Championships, after failing to make the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 team.

2006 Commonwealth Games Relay controversy

At the 2006 Commonwealth Games, Ohuruogu ran the final leg in the 4 x 400 m relay for England. On the second leg with 200 m to go until the third change-over, Jamaica were leading with Australia second and England in third. The rules are that the change over athletes are to line up in order of the position at 200 m. This would have meant that Jamaica would have the inside lane, then Australia with England third from the inside. However, between 200 m and 300 m of the second leg, Nicola Sanders
Nicola Sanders
Nicola Clare Sanders is a British sprinter and hurdler.-Early achievements:Nicola won a bronze medal in the 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships in Riga at 400 m hurdles. That same year she was 4th in the 400 m hurdles at the World Youth Championships...

 of England overtook Caitlin Willis meaning coming up to the third change, the English team were second, with Australia in third place. Tasha Danvers
Tasha Danvers
Tasha De'Anka Danvers is a British Olympic bronze medallist, who finished in third place in the 400m Hurdles at the 2008 Beijing Olympics...

, the English athlete changed places with the Australian, Tamsyn Lewis
Tamsyn Lewis
Tamsyn Carolyn Lewis is an Australian athlete and middle-distance runner, who has won a total of seventeen Australian Championships at 400 metres, 800 metres and 400m hurdles....

. On the home straight, however, Willis and Sanders ran in the 2nd and 3rd lane respectively, and had to change over to pass the baton, as they were obviously aware of the rules. The English team went on to win the race, with Ohuruogu pulling away at the end.

However after the race the Australians were awarded the gold medal as the English team had breached IAAF Rule 170 when Danvers-Smith changed position with Lewis.

(RULE 170 Relay Races9. The athletes in the third and fourth legs of the 4 x 400 m relay race shall, under the direction of a designated official, place themselves in their waiting position in the same order (inside to out) as the
order of their respective team members as they complete 200 m of their legs. Once the incoming athletes have passed this point, the waiting athletes shall maintain their order, and shall not exchange positions at the beginning of the take-over zone. If an athlete does not follow this Rule, his team shall be disqualified.)

Competition suspension

Christine Ohuruogu was suspended from competing in the 2006 European Athletics Championships. The reason for this was that she missed three out-of-competition drug tests, known as the "whereabouts" system, of the World Anti-Doping Code; one in October 2005 and two in June 2006. According to IAAF and British Olympic Association
British Olympic Association
The British Olympic Association is the national Olympic committee for Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1905 in the House of Commons, and at that time consisted of seven national governing body members from the following sports: fencing, life-saving, cycling, skating, rowing,...

 rules, she received a one-year ban for missing these tests, which expired on 5 August 2007.

The British Olympic Association also imposed a lifetime ban excluding Ohuruogu from competing at future Olympic Games
Olympic Games
The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

 for Great Britain. She appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport
Court of Arbitration for Sport
The Court of Arbitration for Sport is an international arbitration body set up to settle disputes related to sport. Its headquarters are in Lausanne and its courts are located in New York, Sydney and Lausanne, Switzerland...

, but the original decision was upheld. Ohuruogu submitted a further appeal, and stated that she would probably leave Britain and compete in the Olympics for another country if it was unsuccessful. Her Olympic ban was finally overturned on 27 November 2007.

2007 Athletics World Championships

A day after her ban was finished, Ohuruogu was selected for the British team at the 2007 Athletics World Championships. She had only run five competitive races before the final since her suspension; however, she managed to take the individual 400 m and secure the only gold medal for Great Britain at the Championships, while her compatriot Nicola Sanders
Nicola Sanders
Nicola Clare Sanders is a British sprinter and hurdler.-Early achievements:Nicola won a bronze medal in the 1999 European Athletics Junior Championships in Riga at 400 m hurdles. That same year she was 4th in the 400 m hurdles at the World Youth Championships...

 won silver. She also took bronze in the 400 m relay.

2008 Olympics

In Beijing, Ohuruogu won her heat against Yulia Guschina who finished 0.18 seconds behind and semi-final for the 400 m women's race against Shericka Williams
Shericka Williams
Shericka Williams is a Jamaican sprinter and former student of St. Elizabeth Technical High School....

 by 0.14 seconds, before taking the gold with a finish down the home straight, beating pre-race favourite Sanya Richards
Sanya Richards
Sanya Richards-Ross is a track and field athlete who competes internationally for the United States. She won an Olympic gold medal in the 4×400 meters relay at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, an individual bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics for the 400 m, and a gold medal in the 2009...

 of the USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 into bronze and Shericka Williams
Shericka Williams
Shericka Williams is a Jamaican sprinter and former student of St. Elizabeth Technical High School....

 of Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...

 into silver, with a time of 49.62s. This time, over 2 seconds slower than the world record, would have achieved no higher than Bronze at each of the Olympics since 1976 (and was slower than 5th place in 1996). It was Great Britain's first - and only - track and field Olympic gold of the 2008 Games
2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XXIX Olympiad, was a major international multi-sport event that took place in Beijing, China, from August 8 to August 24, 2008. A total of 11,028 athletes from 204 National Olympic Committees competed in 28 sports and 302 events...

, and Ohuruogu was the first British female Olympic champion of the 400 m.

2009

In preparation for the European Indoor Championships
2009 European Indoor Championships in Athletics
The 30th European Athletics Indoor Championships was held in Turin, Italy, from Friday, 6 March to Sunday, 8 March 2009. The championships took place at the Oval Lingotto indoor arena which has a seating capacity of 6,600 people....

 in Turin
Turin
Turin is a city and major business and cultural centre in northern Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, located mainly on the left bank of the Po River and surrounded by the Alpine arch. The population of the city proper is 909,193 while the population of the urban area is estimated by Eurostat...

, Ohuruogu set personal bests in the 60 metres
60 metres
60 metres is a sprint event in track and field athletics. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior athletes...

 and 200 m at the Birmingham Grand Prix. She competed at the 2009 Manchester City Games, finishing second in the 150 metres final in 17.10 seconds. She ran a personal best 22.85 seconds to take second place in the 200 m at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Games
Fanny Blankers-Koen Games
The FBK Games is an annual track and field event at the Fanny Blankers-Koen Stadion in Hengelo, Netherlands as part of the IAAF World Challenge Meetings. It was first organized in 1981...

. While she won the 400 m national title at the UKA Championships in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 that July, her times and finishes over the distance at IAAF Golden League
IAAF Golden League
The IAAF Golden League was an annual series of track and field meetings organised by the International Association of Athletics Federations...

 meets were unimpressive. She had failed to break 51 seconds in the 2009 season; some distance behind world-leader Richards' best of 49.23 seconds. A hamstring problem caused her to withdraw from the London Grand Prix
London Grand Prix
The Aviva London Grand Prix is an annual athletics event at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London, England.Previously one of the five IAAF Super Grand Prix events, it is now part of the IAAF Diamond League...

, raising doubts that she would be unable to defend her World title.

2011 Athletics World Championships

Ohuruogu was selected for the British team at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics
2011 World Championships in Athletics
The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011....

. She was disqualified in her individual 400 m after a false start.

Personal bests

Event Best Location Date
60 metres
60 metres
60 metres is a sprint event in track and field athletics. It is a championship event for indoor championships, normally dominated by the best outdoor 100 metres runners. At outdoor venues it is a rare distance, at least for senior athletes...

7.54 s Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

, England
21 February 2009
100 metres
100 metres
The 100 metres, or 100-metre dash, is a sprint race in track and field competitions. The shortest common outdoor running distance, it is one of the most popular and prestigious events in the sport of athletics. It has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896...

11.35 s Irvine, California
Irvine, California
Irvine is a suburban incorporated city in Orange County, California, United States. It is a planned city, mainly developed by the Irvine Company since the 1960s. Formally incorporated on December 28, 1971, the city has a population of 212,375 as of the 2010 census. However, the California...

, United States
4 May 2008
200 metres
200 metres
A 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...

22.85 s Hengelo
Hengelo
Hengelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the International Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service.-Traffic and transport:...

, Netherland
1 June 2009
400 metres
400 metres
The 400 metres, or 400 metre dash, is a common sprinting event in track and field competitions. It has been featured in the athletics programme at the Summer Olympics since 1896 . On a standard outdoor running track, it is exactly one lap around the track. Runners start in staggered positions and...

49.61 s Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...

, Japan
29 August 2007


External link

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK