Odyssey awaits for golden Ohuruogu

THE awesome presence of Olympic 400m champion, Christine Ohuruogu, will add an air of excitement to this weekend’s Woodies DIY Irish Indoor Championships at The Odyssey in Belfast, where she will begin the build-up to the defence of her world title in Berlin next August.

With Ohuruogu scheduled to compete in both the 60m and the 200m, fans will have plenty of opportunity to savour the combination of power and speed that is the hallmark of her performance.

The 24-year-old Newham athlete races very sparingly. Last summer, her rare low key appearances on the circuit led many to believe that she stood little chance of defeating hot favourite Sanya Richards in the Olympic final, but her emphatic victory again proved that her single-minded approach to major championships suits her.

She has only recently arrived back in the UK from warm weather training in South Africa, and said yesterday she is looking forward to the Odyssey outing, which fits in perfectly with her racing plans at this time of the year. Her next outing will be in Birmingham in two weeks time.

The 60m is not her best event by any means and it could take a best ever performance if she is to beat her training partner, Anyika Onoura. The Liverpool Harriers athlete won the event last year in 7.38 secs, edging out Irish international Ailis McSweeney who takes her bid for a qualifying time for next month’s European indoor championships to the Odyssey.

“This is just the right competition for Ailis,” said John Sheehan, who coached her to a silver medal at the World University Championships in 2005.

“She appears to be coming back to her old form at precisely the right time, and I will be very surprised if she does not qualify particularly with this type of opposition and, after that, she has the potential to be a finalist at the Europeans.”

McSweeney went close to the qualifying standard (7.40 secs) in Leipzig and Vienna in the past week and the four races she has under her belt will have sharpened her considerably considering she has not yet tapered off.

Kelly Proper, who broke the long jump record at the Odyssey last year, and her Ferrybank clubmate, Niamh Whelan, set personal bests for the 60m last weekend and will figure as will Claire Brady, the newest addition to Paddy Fay’s squad and, of course, the national record holder, Anna Boyle.

Robert Heffernan (Togher), who finished eighth in the 20k walk at the Olympics and Olive Loughnane (Loughrea), who was seventh in the women’s equivalent to record Ireland’s best performance in track and field in Beijing, will also be in action.

But another Olympian, Derval O’Rourke, will be the centre of attention. The 2006 world indoor 60m champion is hoping to get the qualifying standard for the European Indoor Championships when she races in Stuttgart today and will then fly back to Belfast for the Irish indoor championships.

Sean Cahill who coaches both herself and Ailis McSweeney these days, is expecting a big run from her in Stuttgart following a modest opening to her season in Moscow last Sunday.

Deirdre Ryan set a new national indoor high jump record at 1.93m in Germany two weeks ago to claim her place in the team for the European indoor championships which will be announced on March 1. She will not be competing in the nationals this weekend, however, as she has just started a new job in Germany and could not get time off to make the trip.