Christine Ohuruogu determined to defend Commonwealth crown in Delhi

Christine Ohuruogu cut through the high emotions over sport’s security issues to declare herself ready and willing to defend her Commonwealth title in Delhi in October.

Talk of a boycott by England competitors because of the terrorist threat in India gained pace after the killing of three men in an ambush on the Togo football team in Angola last week. However, the Olympic 400 metres champion refused to join the athletes counting themselves out of the Commonwealth Games.

“No one wants to send people into an area that’s unsafe, but I hope the Indian authorities make the necessary preparations,” she said. “I’m sure they will because not to provide sufficient security measures would be negligent.

“I don’t think that will happen because it would be a huge embarrassment if they don’t have what’s required. We had the same thing before the Athens Olympics [in 2004] when there was a bomb threat and then there was talk of a boycott before Beijing [in 2008]. You have to be sensible and not jump on the bandwagon and say, ‘I’m not going.’ ”

Senior Whitehall officials have reportedly said that there is virtually no chance of an England team going to Delhi, but Mike Fennell, the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president, yesterday dismissed the claim. “The CGF regard security of the Games for athletes and spectators as being of paramount importance,” he said. Fennell said the CGF had been working with a leading security firm since 2005 and took issue with those “who do not have any serious knowledge of the detailed plans”.

Fennell will be glad to hear Ohuruogu say Delhi is part of her plans. “It is in the programme, although we have to play the year by ear,” she said. “The main focus is the European Championships [in Barcelona], which are in July and a lot earlier than we’re used to. I’ll proceed cautiously. I have to be totally fit. I’m going [to Delhi] as the defending champion and don’t want to go in half-hearted.”

If Ohuruogu adds the European title, it will make her one of only five Britons to have the full house of Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth gold medals. That does not mean as much to her as getting back on track after a year when a torn tendon in a thigh ruined her chances of retaining her world title. In the final in Berlin she laboured home in fifth, while Sanya Richards, of the United States, gained revenge for Beijing.

Ohuruogu, still only 25, admits that it was hard when she heard herself referred to as a former world champion. “I did cry my eyes out after the final, but I have to accept it,” she said. “I was not good enough on the day, but I’m happy I turned up. I could have stayed at home and watched it on TV, but I went to defend my title. I showed my face but did not have enough in the bank.”

As usual, she has been punishing herself during the winter, running up snowy hills in Mile End, East London, and having what she says are preventative injections in her ankles and hip. She will open her 400 metres season in the US and is planning to compete on the new Diamond League circuit, where she may come face to face with Richards again. “Anything that makes the sport more appealing is welcome,” Ohuruogu said. “I hate to admit it, but I think track and field is dying.”

That is quite an admission from one of its big players, especially in light of the resurgence caused by Usain Bolt, the world record-holder at 100 metres and 200 metres. However, Ohuruogu said that she has concerns that the Olympic legacy may elude those youngsters that it should benefit.

It is why she has agreed to be a patron of this year’s Balfour Beatty London Youth Games. “It’s inevitable that the excitement will die down post-2012, but London is a city that’s always moving, so I hope it produces long-lasting changes,” she said. “The Youth Games are a good start.”