Christine Ohuruogu surveyed her rivals from the safety of her bubble. She watched them stand up and sit down, play with their hands and tap their feet, and then landed on the svelte figure of Sanya Richards. “For me she was bordering on extreme confidence and that was a worry when the rest of us were wetting ourselves,” the Britain runner said of her rival.

Ohuruogu survived the inner demons, the headache and the heavy legs. She coped with the tiredness that came from two sleepless nights and then, when she had won the Olympic 400 metres title, dismissed the questions about her one-year exile. The post mortem of the one-time poster girl for 2012 endures, but Ohuruogu will be going to London as one of only four British women to have won a track gold at the Olympics. “I'm going to be there whether you like it or not,” she said. “When you go to the Olympics you catch the bug. I used to walk to Stratford station every morning on my way to uni and it's 15 minutes from my house. I hope I can treat it as not just a random meet.”

It was a line that summed up a complex, contradictory character. She is intelligent, yet has a reputation as a scatterbrain; even as she awaited her medal ceremony it emerged that she had forgotten to bring a Great Britain tracksuit and so Lord Coe was reduced to the role of valet. She is engaging but suspicious and she has a habit of running the perfect race despite saying she has no strategy. “It never goes to plan so why have one?” she said. “I'm fortunate in that my last 100 metres is always the strongest part of my race, but one day someone is going to catch me up, so I need to make sure every other bit is as good.”

So she works in her bubble. Last year it was enforced, as she toiled away in exile and with no Olympic dream. Whatever her critics think, it evinced an indomitable will. Michael Johnson, the doyen of 400 metres runners and sometimes in the critical camp, said: “She wasn't able to race for the first half of the season and still went out there to train every day. That was impressive.”

Back to reality for golden generation

Olympic heroes will discover if the last 17 days has been a life-changing experience or a glorious but brief interlude

• Team GB to be rewarded with gold for gold

• Hard work starts now as British sailors look towards London 2012

• Public support gained from success in Beijing needs to last four years

BACKGROUND

• How the Brits became world beaters

• London double-decker arrives in Beijing

• Olympics proves capacity for greatness

• New dawn for British sport as Olympic sun sets

Multimedia

• Simon Barnes in Beijing

• Bring back the tug-of-war

• Top 100 Olympic athletes of all time

Related Links

• Questions run and run for Ohuruogu

• New golden girl will be forever tarnished

• Great British adjust target to 20 golds

If sport is founded on rivalries, Ohuruogu v Richards was a modern-day classic. The United States runner was the favourite and, had she known what was going through Ohuruogu's head, would have been beyond bordering extreme confidence. “I was worried because when you go into a final you want to believe you're in your best shape,” Ohuruogu said. “But I had a headache and it was hot and it was the final and everything was getting to me.”

Adrift coming off the last bend, she grew in strength as Richards panicked. “That's why she tensed up,” Ohuruogu said. “In the 400 metres it's the last 15 metres that are crucial. That's where you win and lose races. But I was glad I was in my own bubble.”

There is more to come from the 24-year-old. “My races are still touch and go,” she admitted.

Johnson said: “She didn't attack the third 100 metres and that's what she will have to do to run 48 seconds, which she can do.”

In the meantime she will continue to ignore the raking over of her past. “I'm not expecting people to forget and realistically it's something I've got to put up with,” she said.

Johnson seemed more perplexed by the criticism and said people need to “distinguish between a drug cheat who tested positive and someone who just wasn't smart”. Whatever happened in the past, it is hard to see her bubble bursting any time soon.