I was school boffin, says Olympic Chrissie

Christine Ohuruogu almost became a teacher, the Olympic gold medallist revealed as she took charge of a class for a day.

The 400-metres champion, born in Newham, became a temporary teacher at Albany School in Enfield, giving an English lesson to a group of 12-year-olds.

The athlete, who was helping promote the Teach First charity, had a unique classroom prop for the lesson on Friday - her 400-metres gold medal from the Beijing Games.

"Do you want one of these?" she asked as she showed the medal to the 21 pupils. "You have to work very hard. Very, very hard."

Ohuruogu was one of a string of names, including former No 10 spin doctor Alistair Campbell and ex-100 metre runner Darren Campell, asked to teach a lesson to raise the profile of Teach First. It places graduates into struggling schools for a two-year course of accelerated teacher training.

The 24-year-old, who graduated from University College London with a linguistics degree, chose English as her subject, telling pupils she had been "a boffin" during her school days at St Edward's Church of England comprehensive in Romford.