Emily Freeman runs superb 200metres for GB team place in Peking beats muscle mass and definition of Christine Ohuruogu

The National Championship meeting over the weekend which is supposed to be pivotal in selecting the GB team for Peking was remarkable in many ways. Considering this was the decisive moment after 4 years for team selection, the public support was negligible.

The BBC as ever provided excellent coverage of the events but with the inane jingoistic voice overs and coverage we have to accept as standard.

The most remarkable event was the women's 200 metres.

This featured, remarkably, Christine Ohuruogu, allegedly our 400m gold medal prospect who didn't run in the 400 metres which was won by 29 year old Scot, Lee McConnell in 52.31 seconds.

Just to recap, Christine Ohuruogu was the Commonwealth Gold medal winner at Melbourne in 2006 in 50.28 seconds and also in the Osaka World Championships last year winning her heat, semis and final.
This appearance was 24 days after a suspension resulting from having missed three out of competition drugs tests, one in October 2005 and two in June 2006. According to IAAF and British Olympic Association rules, she received a one-year ban for missing these tests. The British Olympic Association also banned her from competing at future Olympic Games for Great Britain. John Scott, UK Sport's director of drug-free sport, defended Ohuruogu's punishment at the time and said: "The sanction is in line with that set out within the IAAF's rules and reflects the seriousness of the offence. "

She appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, but the original decision was upheld.

She appealed against her Olympic ban - having claimed apparently that if her claim failed she would run for Nigeria In the event, her ban was overturned on 27 August 2007, leaving her free to compete for Britain in future games, then in November her Olympics ban was overturned.

Her ban was completed on the original date of 5 August 2007.

In the 200 metres final yesterday , slim , shy 27 year old, Emily Freeman from Mirfield and a member of the Wakefield club produced a stunning, solid Olympic A standard time (23 secs B Standard is 23.20 secs) of 22.92 seconds , with Ohuruogu on her shoulder at 22.99.

Emily was close to her personal best and was fastest in heats, semis and the final. She is actually a civil engineer and decided last October to become a full time athlete - 23.01 on June 8 in Regensburg she pushed her personal best down to 23.01 seconds and then last week at Leiden clocked 22.72 - 5th fastest ever for a GB athlete - where she also did a season best in the 100metres at 11.39 seconds.

Nobody could fail to be impressed by the sheer body bulk , upper body muscle mass and well defined muscular structure of Christine Ohuruogu when she was interviewed post race by the BBC alongside Emily Freeman .

It is worth noting that the womens 200 metre world record still stands from Seoul 29/09/1988 when Florence Griffith-Joyner "Flo-Jo" ran 21.34 - her pre-1988 best at 200 meters was 21.96, a mark not even in the top 20 runs on the all-time list. In 1988 she improved that by 0.67 seconds, another time which has not been approached and long since ascribed to illegal drug use to which many attribute her early death. Another remarkable performance was in New Orleans, LA on 26th June 1992 when Marion Jones (now disgraced and self confessed illegal drug user) was a youth she ran 22.38 sec. Heike Drechlser is still recorded as holding the European title with 21.71 run both at Jena and Stittgrta in 1986 - she was then running for the GDR after having been trained in East Germany suing drugs and acting as a Stasi spy. (She is of course the FDR representative for the next Wordl Championships) see post Tuesday, May 06, 2008 Stasi spy Heike Drechsler represents Germany on IAAF - expect great results for Germany in IAAF World Championships in Berlin 2009

The IAAF show that the fastest runner this year has been Isabel Le Roux who ran 23.05 secs at Germiston in South Africa and won the 16th African Championships at Addis Abba in May with 22.69 seconds. She will join her colleague Thuso Mpuang in Peking.

PS : From the BBC website with GB team biogs Emly weighs in at 56 Kilos = 125 pounds = 8stoe 13 lb and Christine weighs in at 70 Kilos = 154 pounds= 11 stone which if Christine is 5ft 6" gives her a BMI of 25 = overweight.