Christine Ohuruogu, pictured below, who comes from Stratford, an Olympic athlete and Commonwealth and World Champion has just won the Gold Medal in the 400 metres at the Bejing Olympics
As a former under 17 and under 19 England netball player, Christine participated in athletics from the age of 16 because of her love for running. She began to specialise in the 400m after agreeing to run her first race as no other athlete from Newham & Essex Beagles wanted to compete over such a distance. From then on Christine was regularly selected to run the 400m due to the impressive times she ran for her age group.
In 2001, Christine made her debut in athletics where she ran 25.0 for the 200m and 55.29 for the 400m, placing her 3rd in the junior international rankings. In 2002, a hamstring injury forced Christine to miss the season however she made a superb return in 2003 by performing a personal best (54.21) taking bronze place at the European 400m.
Christine was selected to compete for the GB team at the Athens Olympics in 2004, achieving a new personal best of 50.50 in the heats and narrowly missing out on a place in the final, finishing 4th in her semi final.
2004: Part of 4x400m relay squad that comes fourth at the Athens Olympics
2006: Banned for 12 months after missing three out-of-competition drugs tests in the last 18 months
2007: Returns to competition, winning the 200m at the Scottish Championships
2006: Wins 400m Commonwealth gold in Melbourne
2007: Wins 400m World Championships final in Osaka
