Sanders shrugs off Johnson put-down over 400m rival

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Johnson, the American 400metres star of the Atlanta and Sydney Olympics, who is now a BBC pundit, said at the weekend that the British women would be like ‘deer in the headlights’ when they get to the Olympics because they have not raced runners of Richards’ class this year.

World medallists: Sanders (left) and Ohuruogu

‘You have to compete against the best in the world time and time again,’ said Johnson, whose former coach Clyde Hart now directs Richards’ training.

But Sanders, world 400m silver medallist last year, defended herself and world champion Ohuruogu, saying she had not avoided Richards, who she had believed would be in Friday’s race at the Aviva London Grand Prix. She was surprised when she read last week that Richards would not be coming.

Sanders said: ‘When we were both on Five Live she said she would be there and was looking forward to it. I thought it was going to be a race between Christine, Sanya and myself. I certainly haven’t said I didn’t want to run against her.

‘It’s always nice to run against the best of the best and I won’t now going into Beijing. That isn’t ideal but it isn’t a problem. Perhaps the organisers wanted it to be focused on the British head-to-head.’

Richards, world No 1 for the last two years but missing in Osaka when Ohuruogu beat Sanders by just 0.04sec to the world title, has run seven 400m races this summer, all in quicker times than Sanders and Ohuruogu have clocked . The American has her last race before the Olympics in Stockholm on Tuesday.

Friday’s race will be only the third of the season for Sanders. She had to pull out of two scheduled in the United States, one against Richards, because of a knee injury and then missed this month’s Olympic Trials because of a thigh niggle.

But Sanders said: ‘I didn’t have many races last year before the worlds, just one less than I’ll have had this year, and I won the world silver, so it’s not a problem.

‘I know I will be OK for Beijing. I’m very confident about that.’