Michael Beloff, one of the country's best-known QCs, said in a letter published in the latest edition of Athletics Weekly that he is growing tired of the Londoner's achievements being tainted by the three missed drugs tests which led to her being banned for a year in 2006.

 

It was while watching Ohuruogu win the world 400m title in her first major competition back after completing the suspension in Osaka last year that Beloff offered to represent her for free in her appeal against the British Olympic Association (BOA).

 

They impose an automatic lifetime ban on any athlete convicted of a doping offence.

 

But Beloff , who works out of the Blackstone Chambers in London, successfully got the suspension overturned, allowing her to upset the odds and triumph in Beijing last month where she was the only British athlete to win a gold medal in the Bird's Nest Stadium.

 

He wrote to Athletics Weekly: "I made the offer [to represent her for nothing] because I was convinced that Christine was a clean athlete."

 

Beloff  also represented Dwain Chambers in his unsuccessful appeal against his original two-year ban in 2003 after he tested positive for the designer anabolic steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), although he charged his normal four-figure daily fee on that occasion.

 

Beloff is a keen athletics fan, who is a close friend of London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe, and served as a member of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) at the Beijing Olympics.

 

He said: "I have prosecuted for the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) some of the most high profile athletes found guilty of doping offences - from Butch Reynolds through Katrin Krabbe to the Greek bikers, Kenteris and Thanou, but I would not rely on my my perception alone [in the case of Ohuruogu].

 

"It needs to be repeated that no less than three tribunals, the Court of Arbitration for Sport [in Lausanne] and the UK Athletics Appeal Tribunal and the Sports Resolution Dispute Panel, each of whom was composed of highly experienced persons unequivocally acquitted Chirstine of ever having taken a prohibited substance; and the latter body before whom I appeared on her behalf, accepted that she had a proper and credible explanation for her three missed tests."

 

Ohuruogu, born and raised in Stratford by Nigerian parents less than a mile from the site of the proposed 2012 Olympic Stadium, was being lined up to be the face of the 2012 Olympics until she got suspended but last week said that it is a role she would still be keen to fill.

 

Beloff wrote: "It is time the cloud of suspicion over Christine's head was finally lifted and we take unquivocal pride in the achievements of a highly accomplished athlete."