After Christine Ohuruogu’s heroic gold medal exploits in Russia on Monday, it appears she is not content with just regaining her world title, revealing that she is now targeting the Rio Olympics in 2016. This will be particularly important to Ohuruogu after narrowly missing out on on Olympic gold at London 2012.
Ohuruogu, now stands alone as Britain’s most successful female athlete ever after winning her third global title, and joins the likes of Jonathon Edwards and Daley Thompson with three major championship gold medals. Mo Farah with four major titles, is the only Britain with more.
After her win on Monday, Ohuruogu revealed she was disappointed with her time, despite beating her personal best.
"The rounds were really easy for me – I ran 49.7 in the semi-finals without batting an eyelid so I know that there's more," said Ohuruogu. "I have 49.2 as a time I can run in my head so I was a bit disappointed that I ran 49.41."
It is unlikely that this World Championships will see another race as exciting or as closely contested. Ohuruogu dramatically dipped for the line after making up a huge gap on Amantle Montsho, who led her by 10 metres.
"How you see the race in your head is never how it replays on camera," she said. "I am just surprised at how I managed to stay so calm in what looks like a really bad place."
The fantastic news for Athletics fans, is that Ohuruogu is now planning to continue to the Rio Olympics in 2016 and try again for Gold. This means another 3 years of intense training, waking up early in the cold winter months and dedicating her life to the sport.
"It's another three winters of snow and cold but I've given someone my word I will be there in 2016," said Ohuruogu. "I'm going to be 30 next year but I think I can go faster. I'm happy to get the British record but it's not quite fast enough."
Ohuruogu's coach, Lloyd Cowan, confirmed that Ohuruogu is to end her career in Rio, adding: "That's where we will finish the story. She will be 32 and I think in her prime, but you can't keep pushing the body. We have to be smart. So that's where we will do the last chapter."
Cowan believes that her determination has hardened by the one-year suspension she served between 2006-07 for missing three drugs tests. "When you go through something like that it changes you," he said. "My conversation with her at that time was: 'If you go through something like this then nothing should ever faze you in your life because this is vicious, this is very, very vicious.'"
We’re glad that Christine will carry on to represent Britain in Rio and try to become the most decorated British athlete ever, she has put in some special performances and defied the odds on multiple occasions. Despite her achievement she has not always been shown the respect she deserves by the British media and by extension the public, because she is not pushed forward as a ‘star’.
Christine also teaches us an important lesson, it may be a cliche but never has ‘it’s not over until its over’ been so true, never giving in, dipping for the line and pushing right to the finish are qualities that we should always remember in life, in whatever we do!
No comments:
Post a Comment