Ohuruogu's Olympic dream

I am thrilled Christine Ohuruogu had her Olympic ban overturned.

Those I knew concerned with the verdict were confident the evidence given by Christine to the board of appeal was strong enough to quash the sentence.

And now that it's behind her, she can get back to training properly for next season and for the Beijing Games.

We already know Christine is a phenomenal athlete - she showed that in the summer when she won the World Championships 400m title.

It was all the more remarkable because in the year leading up to the event, Christine was not allowed to take part in competitions and she had to do all her racing with her training partners under the supervision of coach Lloyd Cowan.

I think the victory at Osaka had something to do with the ban - she ran angry - but she also wanted to prove herself in the team.

Not that she had to. I was with the BBC Radio 5 Live crew in Japan and didn't hear any negative comments about Christine's inclusion from any of Team GB.

In fact, they welcomed her back.

It was different to the reaction for fellow Briton Dwain Chambers when he briefly returned to racing last year following his two-year ban.

I guess I was quite blas� about his return. I thought that rules were rules - you fail a drugs test, serve the term and then come back to competition.

I put up with such athletes instead of getting bitter and twisted worrying that the person competing against you just finished serving a drugs ban.

Everyone was tight-lipped about Dwain when he failed, admitted taking drugs and then came back in.

We treated Christine's return to the team very differently.

Now that she has a World Championships gold in the bag she can concentrate on success in China.

Along with Paula Radcliffe, Christine is one of Britain's great Olympic medal hopes.

I expect her to have access to lottery funding now, which will mean she will have to sign a UK Athletics contract, which in turn means she will have to compete in a required amount of designated races.

But Christine will be happy with that because competing against the best is the ideal preparation for next summer's big one.

However, I do think she will find it difficult to replicate what she achieved in Osaka at the Olympics because the favourite, American Sanya Richards, is likely to be there.

I still expect our girl to win a medal.

In a strange way, I think the ban has made her a stronger athlete and a stronger person because of what she has had to go though.

She will now put the events of the last year behind her, concentrate on having a good winter's training and prepare herself for what could be another momentous year in her life.

Allison Curbishley was talking to Saj Chowdhury

Source: BBC Sport