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Double standard helps British track star Christine Ohuruogu

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BEIJING -- The holier-than-thou British Olympic Committee banned sprinter Dwain Chambers from the Olympics for past doping sins, even though Chambers had served his time (a two-year ban).

But it rescinded the Olympic ban on past doping offenders that would have kept quarter-miler Christine Ohuruogu off its 2008 team for her sin, which was missing three out-of-competition drug tests. ‘I think Christine is fortunate [to be here],’ said Sanya Richards, the gold medal favorite in the 400. ‘Her case is different, because she never had a positive [test], but I do think she is fortunate.’’

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Ohuruogu won the 2007 world title in the 400. Richards did not compete because she failed to qualify for the event at the U.S. Championships, when she was weakened by Behcet’s syndrome, an inflammation of the blood vessels.

Behcet’s debilitated Richards in a number of ways.

‘It started with flu-like symptoms, and I wasn’t very worried,’’ Richards said. ‘I started to take antibiotics, but that didn’t work. It went on for a long time, and the symptoms never really went away.

‘I started to get really bad mouth ulcers to the point I couldn’t eat, and I couldn’t talk. I’d have to write messages on paper for Coach [Clyde] Hart and my family. And then I got really bad skin lesions that felt like someone burned my skin with an iron. Sometimes I couldn’t even squat down because they were so bad on my legs.

‘It was a really trying time for me. When I finally got the right medication, I was in a much better place. I learned so many lessons and I’m so much stronger, not only physically but mentally.’’

Richards came to Beijing with four of the eight fastest 400 times in the world this year, topped by a 49.86. Ohuruogu’s season best, 50.88, ranks 45th.

-- Philip Hersh

Photo (left): Britain’s Christine Ohuruogu. Credit: Jonathan Brady / EPA
Photo (right): American Sanya Richards. Credit: Kirby Lee/Image of Sport-US Presswire

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