Ohuruogu lights Idowu's fire

Now, thanks to an inspired run taking less than 50 seconds, Stratford's 400 metres world and Olympic champion has shown him how to do it.

Ohuruogu shares a training venue in north London with Idowu and will be hoping he follows her on to the gold medal podium in the triple jump final tomorrow night.

The 24-year-old's historic 400m victory was always going to come labelled with the word "controversial" by those who will do their best to ensure she serves a life sentence for three calamitous moments of forgetfulness.

Yet the glow it cast over her team-mates here was incredibly warming, the sort of soaring moment which could change the momentum of their entire week - and lift Idowu in the process.

"Hard work and a belief in God," responded Britain's first Olympic one-lap winner since that 1924 Charioteer of Fire Eric Liddell when asked what her motivation was.

Buoyed also by a silver medal so unlikely as to be almost unthinkable from Anglo-Jamaican high jumper Germaine Mason, Ohuruogu's triumph instantaneously turned the British track team from the quiet mob who sit sipping lemonade in the corner of the party into the life and soul of the biggest champagne bash in town.

Suddenly, she has become everyone's focus - even if some of it inevitably remains an unwelcome and uncomfortable experience.

She could hardly hide her dismay that, in her moment of glory, she was still having to deal with the old stuff about those missed drugs tests. This time last year, she had won the world championships only to find to her amazement that she was pilloried in the papers back home the next day; now, she was adamant she was going to let nothing upset her.

Once bitten, she has, understandably, become a more defensive character since. "I don't really care what people think or say, they can say what they like," she retorted. "I have come here and got what I wanted and I'm very happy I now have three gold medals from three major championships. Nothing can spoil that for me."

Certainly, there appears to now be an overwhelming desire within the team and the rest of British athletics here to ensure a great champion is now given a bit of a break.

"Ohuruogu's victory was absolutely fantastic for both her and her fellow British athletes and my real hope is that she is now accepted by our public as a genuine champion," said former mile world record holder Steve Cram, while even the vanquished American Sanya Richards generously hailed her performance.

Yet should Idowu make it a golden track and field double for London tomorrow, there'll be no controversy.

It would just mark his final hop, step and jump from being a mercurial, mentally fragile talent all the way to becoming the world's greatest triple jumper - and it would mirror eerily what Jonathan Edwards once did.

Edwards was a fine talent, and a fervent believer in God, and one miraculous year, aged 29, found himself transformed from contender to magnificent champion. He suffered one Olympic disappointment in Atlanta, when he was expected to win gold and ended with silver, but then leapt to golden glory in Sydney four years later.

Idowu had his own Olympic setback four years ago in Athens when he had three no jumps in the final but, at 29 just like Edwards, he has now discovered a vein of form so rich that no one has been able to beat him all year. He also revealed that, just as Edwards was once driven by his faith (which he has lost since his career ended), he, too, is being inspired by a new spiritual strength.

"God is my inspiration and it's definitely more so this year," Idowu told me. "My faith is definitely playing a bigger part in my confidence, my belief and my ability, helping me understand where I'm going. I haven't always had this strong faith but it's literally just been enhanced this year.

"It's crazy that all of a sudden, I do have that belief and faith and things in my life and career seem to be going so well. I'm not going to question it. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

Ally that to his extraordinarily hard work, and a new successful coaching partnership with Aston Moore and you have a truly formidable athlete. Interviewing Ohuruogu down at Lee Valley earlier this year, she pointed out to me the heavily metalled bloke going through his paces and described him as the hardest-working athlete at the centre.

"Yeah, man, I live at the place," agreed Idowu. "Some of the staff tell me I'm there more than them! Long days but they're worth it; I'm just making sure I do the work which will enable me to make a big performance here. Because everything this year has gone exactly the way I want it to go - and, yes, I do definitely feel a sense of destiny, that it's my year."

From Stratford to Hackney, a golden trail beckons.