Christine Ohuruogu (born May 17, 1984 in east
London) is an English sprinter of Nigerian heritage
who specialises in the 400 metres - the event for
which she is the current World Champion.
Ohuruogu's Personal Best of 49.61 ranks her third
amongst British women 400 m runners, behind Olympic
medallists Kathy Cook and Katharine Merry.
She was banned for a year in 2006 for missing 3
out-of-competition drugs tests.
Born to Nigerian parents in East London, she was
raised less than one mile from the 2012 Summer
Olympics stadium in Stratford. Ohuruogu studied
linguistics at University College London, where she
played netball, but quit in 2003 in order to
concentrate on competitive athletics. Christine also
has 8 other siblings, one of whom is Victoria
Ohuruogu, a top sprints competitor in her age group.
In 2003 Ohuruogu was a bronze medallist 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 team
that finished 4th. In the 2005 European Under 23
Championships she took the silver medal, losing
individual gold by a hundredth of a second. She also
won silver at 4 x 400 m relay.
After reaching the semi-final at the 400 m at the
2005 World Championships in Athletics she won a
bronze medal in the women's 4 x 400 metres relay
together with Lee McConnell, Donna Fraser and Nicola
Sanders.
She won a gold medal for England in the 400 m at the
2006 Commonwealth Games in a personal best time of
50.28 seconds, beating favourite Tonique
Williams-Darling 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. Fellow British athlete,
Nicola Sanders took the silver with Novlene Williams
of Jamaica 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, did not
qualify for the World Championships, after failing
to make the United States team.
