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Linford Christie's niece on track for 2012 and Miss World crown
Danny Brierley19 May 2009
By day she is an Olympic hopeful, dreaming of competing in the 2012 Games. By night she is winning beauty contests. Rachel Christie, the niece of former Olympic champion Linford Christie, has been crowned Miss London after swapping — at least temporarily — her tracksuit for an evening dress and tiara.
Hers is a remarkable tale of triumph over adversity. When she was just eight, her father Russell, the brother of Linford, was stabbed to death after being caught up in a west London drugs war.
Today Rachel, 20, told how she has overcome her grief at his death in her bid to achieve her twin ambitions — to win Olympic gold and be crowned Miss World. A member of the Thames Valley Harriers, her uncle's athletics club, she is already a highly ranked athlete at 400 metres and at the heptathlon and she plans to enter the next Olympic trials for Britain's athletes in two years' time.
Her ambition is fired by memories of a street brawl that ended with Russell Christie, still only 34, fatally stabbed in the neck in Notting Hill. That was 12 years ago. Now 5ft 10in, the model, who lives in west Kensington, is using the memory of the tragedy to drive her in her quest for success.
She said: “There isn't a day goes by when I don't think about my dad. “His death didn't inspire me, my uncle did that because we all used to watch him on the television. But it made me more focused on achieving my dream. Sport is good for taking anger away.
“I train six days a week at the Linford Christie stadium in Hammersmith, which is a little bit strange because it's named after my uncle, and he is with me for a couple of those days.”
Off the track, Rachel has already tasted success in her modelling career. She will represent London in the Miss England competition in July after being presented with the Miss London diamond tiara at a pageant at West End night club Movida.
If successful she will go on to compete in Miss World in South Africa in December. “I didn't expect to win,” she said of her Miss London triumph. “I entered last year but didn't do that well. When they read my name out this time it felt like I was having a cardiac arrest.”
The track, however, remains her priority and her uncle, who won gold in the 100 metres at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona and the World Championships in Stuttgart in 1993, is her inspiration.
She said: “My talent is in athletics and I have to follow my dream for an Olympic gold medal. To win one in my home city would be unbelievable. Everyone, including me, looks up to him. He is an amazing sprinter. “When I run with him now I always wonder what it would be like to win what he did.”
Reader views (1)
There's nothing wrong with aiming for the top! Well done Rachel. Hopefully she has a bit more talent than fellow hopeful Olympic sportswoman Katie Price.
- Marianne, SW France/London, 19/05/2009 11:19
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