Charles van Commenee expects Christine Ohuruogu to impress

Ohuruogu was named yesterday as part of the Great Britain & Northern Ireland women's 4x400 metres squad and Van Commenee believes the 2008 Olympic gold 400m medallist is back to her best.

"I've seen a lot of her in training and it's definitely better than she's been doing over the past few years," he said.

"She deserves a selection almost without much thinking because she's definitely in that group.

"I think she's been under the radar but that's more in terms of publicity and not of the head coach."

Van Commenee revealed he wants to use the event, which runs from March 9 to 11, to test relay combinations ahead of the Olympics.

"We want to do very well in London with the 4x400m women's team," he said.

"This is a really good opportunity to get the girls together and see how we are off the three nations that usually dominate the event, the US, Russia and Jamaica.

"We want to be closer and it's important to have the athletes together who have to do the damage half a year from now."

Outdoor 5,000m world champion Mo Farah is also set to compete in Turkey over 3,000m while Jessica Ennis will be looking to defend her pentathlon crown.

Self-coached sprinter Dwain Chambers will be hoping to defend his indoor 60m title during the event but triple-jumper Phillips Idowu and long-jumper Chris Tomlinson have decided not to
compete.

Middle-distance runners Jenny Meadows and Hannah England and sprinter Jeanette Kwakye will also not compete, but Van Commenee is not concerned about the absence of some of GB's star names.

"I find it a useful event to get information to see how the athletes perform on that stage," Van Commenee said.

"It's not the beginning or end of all things which is why I'm not setting any targets for this championship.

"I find it interesting to see how athletes will manifest themselves and see how the younger athletes perform.

"It's not that if the team does great we'll be over the moon and ready for London. At the same time, if we're not doing great it's not a reason to panic.

"I've seen enough this indoor season to be confident and optimistic for the summer. A lot of athletes have shown good ability and for me that's enough, so the number of medals we win in Istanbul won't change that for me.

"Normally you set a target for a reason - it's an incentive to learn or change and there's also an accountability factor in it, but this time I'm not going to change anything.

"Whatever the result will be in Istanbul we're heading in the right direction. This championships is a bonus."