Ohuruogu's Olympic flame burns bright.
November 29th 2007 01:14
Christine Ohuruogu will be allowed to compete for Great Britain at any future Olympic Games a 3 man panel announced yesterday.
After missing 3 random out of competition drugs tests the 23 year old London based athlete was banned for a year and under current BOA rules – would be stripped of eligibility for any future Olympic Games representation for Great Britain.
On her return to competition Ohurougu proceeded to storm to a famous win at the Osaka World Championships as well as help the 4x400m relay team secure the bronze medal.
Now, after 4 months of intrigue and speculation the BOA announced, “The panel decided that Christine Ohuruogu's appeal had been successful due to significant mitigating circumstances.”
And it is those mitigating circumstances that hold much of the interest surrounding this particular doping case.
Fans of Ohuruogu will surely point to the lack of the BOA by-law being adopted by the global doping agency WADA that oversees doping control enforcement.
They will also point to the legal precedents of Tim Don and Peter Cousins who both escaped an Olympic ban under similar circumstances.
They will point to the fact that in the 14 times she has been tested in the last year she has not once tested positive and that her actions were clearly the result of foolishness, not deception.
However the cynics amongst us will wonder that had Ohurougu not triumphed in such spectacular circumstances in Osaka would there have been such a clamour for her reinstatement?
The BOA now somewhat wisely reinstated not only a world champion (of which Great Britain is somewhat bereft of) but potentially the face of the 2012 games with her living just a few minutes from the planned site of the games.
Ohurougu is the United Kingdom’s Cathy Freeman.
“The BOA will now be pleased to welcome Christine Ohuruogu as part of Team GB in Beijing next year in the event of her successful nomination by UK Athletics.”
Few doubt the sincerity of that statement – after all the London Olympic stadium is going to cost £500 million and they’ve got to recoup that from somewhere.
That’s a lot of t-shirts to sell.
Whether it’s the right decision or the right decision for the wrong reasons it’s the result that counts and most athletics fans are delighted.
After missing 3 random out of competition drugs tests the 23 year old London based athlete was banned for a year and under current BOA rules – would be stripped of eligibility for any future Olympic Games representation for Great Britain.
On her return to competition Ohurougu proceeded to storm to a famous win at the Osaka World Championships as well as help the 4x400m relay team secure the bronze medal.
Now, after 4 months of intrigue and speculation the BOA announced, “The panel decided that Christine Ohuruogu's appeal had been successful due to significant mitigating circumstances.”
And it is those mitigating circumstances that hold much of the interest surrounding this particular doping case.
Fans of Ohuruogu will surely point to the lack of the BOA by-law being adopted by the global doping agency WADA that oversees doping control enforcement.
They will also point to the legal precedents of Tim Don and Peter Cousins who both escaped an Olympic ban under similar circumstances.
They will point to the fact that in the 14 times she has been tested in the last year she has not once tested positive and that her actions were clearly the result of foolishness, not deception.
However the cynics amongst us will wonder that had Ohurougu not triumphed in such spectacular circumstances in Osaka would there have been such a clamour for her reinstatement?
The BOA now somewhat wisely reinstated not only a world champion (of which Great Britain is somewhat bereft of) but potentially the face of the 2012 games with her living just a few minutes from the planned site of the games.
Ohurougu is the United Kingdom’s Cathy Freeman.
“The BOA will now be pleased to welcome Christine Ohuruogu as part of Team GB in Beijing next year in the event of her successful nomination by UK Athletics.”
Few doubt the sincerity of that statement – after all the London Olympic stadium is going to cost £500 million and they’ve got to recoup that from somewhere.
That’s a lot of t-shirts to sell.
Whether it’s the right decision or the right decision for the wrong reasons it’s the result that counts and most athletics fans are delighted.
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