Alone among the gilded British victors from Beijing, Christine Ohuruogu has to handle not just the demands and fanfares of triumph but also whispers and vilification. Even in the euphoric glow of her gold-medal run in the 400m, she was reminded that her past errors will always haunt her, that her right to compete will be questioned every time she has the nerve to win.

In the press conference that followed the race and ceremony, with the medal hanging around her neck, the subject of her ban from athletics was raised again. She reacted as she had in the past. She was defensive and prickly. She thought: “Aren’t you guys tired of this yet?”

Her accusers were not tired, for they were about to make their public stands and judgment. Here is a sample, from a leading tabloid newspaper: “When Christine Ohuruogu leaned forward so a gold medal could be draped around her neck, it brought only shame on Britain’s Olympic team . . . The rest of Britain’s Olympic medallists in Beijing are heroes and heroines. But Ohuruogu’s not. She’s just someone who got away with it.”

Such views were not confined to that paper, or to the tabloids. And whether newspapers lead or follow, a substantial body of public opinion seems to be in accord. Last Christmas, Ohuruogu, who had won the women’s 400m in the world championships, came 10th and last in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year poll, with the lowest number of votes ever recorded.

The issue is that two years ago Ohuruogu was banned from the sport for one year after missing three random drug tests. The British Olympic Association then banned her from competing in the Olympics for life because she had been found guilty of a drugs-related offence. She served her year’s ban, won the 400m in the world championships soon afterwards and was later reinstated to Olympic competition on appeal.

The rights and wrongs of the case have been exhaustively rehearsed. But it is worth pointing out that hardly anybody within athletics, including those who campaign most publicly against the scourge of drugs, believes that Ohuruogu did anything other than fail to be where she should have been.

The outstanding question is now the human one: how does she cope with her predica-ment? How will she deal with the knowledge that the better she performs, the harder it will be to silence her accusers and be accepted as a great athlete? After all, if she had come fourth in Beijing, those who traduced her would have sheathed their blades.

Ohuruogu is in Gateshead, where she runs today in the Aviva British Grand Prix meeting (tickets will be available on the door). With her medal still close at hand – it will soon be placed alongside her Commonwealth and world golds, to make a fine set – she is in excellent form. Her smile is as broad as the Tyne Bridge. Most importantly, she insists that she has the answer to her torment.

“It’s always going to be brought up,” she says. “I have to accept that. When I went into that press conference in Beijing, I was ecstatic. I had achieved my goal. I had worked hard. I had kept my focus, and in my head I was in a positive place, so it was hard when it all came up again. But my mum always says, ‘Don’t let people steal your light’, and I must make sure it doesn’t happen. I have so much support. I am so blessed to have family, friends, supporters and my coaches. And the people who are negative, I’m not angry with them any more. I used to get upset, start crying, tear my hair out, but now I give thanks for them. They’re the ones who have made me stronger and better as a person. They have made me stand up for myself and they can make me a better athlete. They can continue, because I’ve got two gold medals out of it and I’m just going to get better and better.

“When I’m warming up before a race and I’ve got my kit on and I’m ready to go, I think about the people who have said this and that against me and I think, ‘Right, this is war. I’m going to do this’. I don’t care what people say, because I’m good at what I do.” Then Ohuruogu takes us through the Olympic final. “The 400m is a long sprint and it goes very quickly. In fact, I never remember the first 150m, which is good because it means I’m focused. I remember getting to about 200m and feeling annoyed that I had messed up. I hadn’t gone out as hard as I could have done. Still, you just have to get on with it. My aim is always to get to 300m, then let the final 100m take care of itself. Coming off the bend, I felt very comfortable, but I didn’t realise how far back I was. But once I get my rhythm, I’m ready to go. It’s just a matter of that rhythm. When I get it, people start dying and I get better and better.

“I could see Sanya Richards, the American, at about 350m. She was ahead and I focused on getting past her. It didn’t hit me until I did pass her and I thought, ‘Gosh, I’m winning’. But I’ve always been told: never think about winning, don’t put the medal around your neck until you’ve crossed the line. Actually, I kind of stopped. I slowed down because I knew my job was done. I was shocked. I wanted to savour it. I wish now I had carried on running because that would have given me a personal best. I missed that by one-hundredth of a second.”

After crossing the winning line, Ohuruogu didn’t quite know what to do. A Christian, she spent a few moments in prayer. Richards, the strong prerace favourite who came third, was big enough in the hollowness of her disappointment to congratulate her. Later, Richards went even further: “She is the world and Olympic champion. I’m proud of her. She had a tough time but she never tested positive.”

Ohuruogu embraced the silver medallist, Shericka Williams of Jamaica. “I see her all the time,” Ohuruogu says. “We started out together in the heats at Athens and we’re good friends. She was thrilled because it was a massive personal best for her. We were thrilled for each other.”

Further words of congratulation also came from Sebastian Coe during the medal ceremony. That was another endorsement, but if for a moment she thought that perhaps her travails were banished, she soon discovered at the press conference that the stain is indelible.

“I can never wipe out the negativity,” Ohuruogu concludes. “But if I’m winning gold medals, I don’t really care. I go to bed at night knowing I’m Olympic champion, and that makes me happy.”