It was interesting to hear Sanya Richards, a quarter-miling queen who got engaged on national television, talk about redemption, because it is a word that has hovered over an ugly year for British athletics. Before Dwain Chambers tried to leave his drug-addled past behind him and catch a ride on the Beijing bandwagon, it was Christine Ohuruogu who was the focus of brickbats and caveats. “I feel she's fortunate to be here,” Richards said of her 400 metres rival.

The difference between the pair could be termed apple pie and humble pie. Richards is an all-American heroine, engaged to a New York Giants American football player, whereas Ohuruogu has been forced into apologising for missing three drugs tests. As the pair prepare for tomorrow's opening round of the 400metres, Richards gave her candid views on the whole drugs issue. “I just think it's a large injustice to all the athletes who have toiled so hard to be here,” she said when asked about the tainted image of track and field. “I don't want to hear about drugs, I don't want to hear about cheaters. I want to hear about all the exciting match-ups, about Liu Xiang against Dayron Robles, about Yelena Isinbayeva.”

Richards, 23, said she felt that there was a strong case for imposing life bans on doping offenders. “Most athletes on our team share that view,” she said. “I admire what Great Britain does - you test positive and you can't represent your country [at the Olympics]. I do think Christine Ohuruogu is fortunate, but her case was different. She never had a positive test and that made her case unique. She's been working hard and, to me, she seems clean, but I do think she's fortunate.”

S**t happens. As someone who did her university thesis on swear words, Ohuruogu, 24, knows that all too well. It did to Ohuruogu after winning gold in the World Championships in Japan last year and it did to Richardsafter Behçet's disease was diagnosedand she failed to qualify for the 400 metres in Osaka. That left her mentally and physically deflated and she is in Beijing for a degree of payback.

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“Last March I got this illness that started off with flu-like symptoms,” she said. “I went to the doctors and they thought it was a virus. But then I got mouth ulcers that were so bad that I couldn't eat or speak - I had to write down things for my coach - and had skin lesions that made it painful to even squat down. It was extremely painful,so I definitely think it's a bit of redemption.”

Richards is a champion without portfolio. Unbeaten in 2006, she trounced Ohuruogu three times after Osaka and has a personal best that is almost a second quicker than her challenger. Ohuruogu's best time this year is 50.80sec, pedestrian by world standards, but things are different in her world. She spent the bulk of 2007 banned, ran a comatose 53.09 on her comeback and, 18 days later, triumphed in Osaka. It will take something equally baffling for her to win here, because her title-winning run was the only time she has dipped below 50sec, whereas five of the past seven Olympic finals have been won in under 49.

Richards, whose cheer-leading squad of 21 family and friends were confident enough to book their tickets to Beijing prior tobefore the Olympic trials, is nevertheless respectful of Ohuruogu and Nicola Sanders, the world silver medal-winner from Amersham, Buckinghamshire. “This is more personal for me,” she said. “I am not gunning for them.”

Intriguingly, the fastest time this year was set by Allyson Felix, who will not be in the field because of her choice to run the 200 metres and the myopic scheduling that has prevented her and Richards from doubling up. So where swimming has its multitasking heroes, America's duo will focus on a single goal. “I look at Michael Phelps and what he is doing and it's inspiring,” Felix said. “It's unfortunate that we were not given that opportunity.”

Ohuruogu is also spying an opportunity after a turbulent year and knows success will spawn more criticism. “As far as I'm concerned, things in my head are normal,” she said. “People ask if the media glare changed me. I don't think it did, it just defined who I was.” If she upsets the apple pie cart here, she may need a new definition.