28 April 2015

World 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu will compete at the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games, in the former Olympic Stadium, at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park from 24-26th July.

The 2008 Olympic champion will take on the world’s best 400m runners at the three-day athletics spectacular, which will also include star names such as British Olympic champions and fellow 2012 medallists Mo Farah (Alberto Salazar), Jessica Ennis-Hill (Toni Minichiello) and Greg Rutherford (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo).

The event includes a two-day Diamond League meeting on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th July, with the Sainsbury’s IPC Athletics Grand Prix Final taking place on Sunday 26th July.

The British record holder will defend the world title she won for the second time in Moscow in 2013 when she lines up at the IAAF World Championships in Beijing in August and believes that the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games will provide an important test coming just four weeks out from the championships.

Ohuruogu said: “The Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games will be quite instrumental for me. I’ll be looking to try and get everything right a month out to Beijing. It will be a really good indication of where I am. If things aren’t quite right I’ll have time to fix them, so it’s an important race.”  

She was victorious at the 2013 Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games with a thrilling 400m victory in a world class time of 50.00.

“London in 2013 was a real decider for me going into Moscow. The event was really good, especially because I won. It was great to be back in the Stadium and the crowd was just like it had been the year before. It’s great for me as an athlete to have that support. You’ve got tens of thousands of people watching, so it will be a really big nice send off into the world championships.”

The Stadium is currently closed as work continues to transform it into the new national competition centre for British Athletics in 2016 and the permanent home of West Ham United FC. A major construction project is underway and on schedule for the stadium to host a number of world class sporting events later this year including the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games and five matches of the Rugby World Cup.

British Athletics have secured the right to host athletics in the Stadium for one month every year for the next 50 years from 2016.

To buy tickets to the Sainsbury’s Anniversary Games visit http://www.britishathletics.org.uk/british-athletics-series/sainsburys-anniversary-games/.