Sprinters take their chances to forget Olympic despair

For Onuora, that is into the top 30 in the world this year with a career-best of 22.71 seconds for the 200m, her prefered event at the World Championship trials, although that time is not in the record books because of a marginal following wind. The fact the 28-year-old is running at all is no mean feat. “I was ready to quit,” said Onuora, who had to take temping jobs to make ends meet in the build-up to London 2012.

“I was pretty close to walking away. There was a lot going on and I’d missed out on so much. The whole of 2012 was hard for me with my dad dying. I even missed his burial in Nairobi because of training, which I know he would have wanted but that was so hard. When I failed to qualify from my heat, I felt like my world had ended.”

Then Rana Reider, who coached American Christian Taylor to triple jump gold, made her change her mind. She moved to Loughborough and is relishing the set-up.

“This time last year I was broken before the Games; now I’m in the best shape of my life but even that doesn’t feel enough,” she says. “In the past, it was about getting the A standard but that’s not enough anymore with all the girls pushing. To use a favourite Rana expression you need to ‘haul ass’.”

Like Onuora, Philip was ready to walk away but has been resurgent in 2013, with a best of 11.20secs for the 100m this season.

“I remember there were times when I thought: ‘Why bother? Why should I do this anymore?’,” she admits. “Everyone was doing what they wanted to do and I was on crutches with a brace on my leg. I wasn’t diagnosed but obviously felt depressed.

“My mum and my aunt were a big help and I realised that I could walk, my legs hadn’t been chopped off and there were people much worse off than me.”

Looking back on the Olympics, she recalls: “That was difficult to watch on TV but with my injuries I’d got used to missing major championships and I think it made me stronger.”

Her past means fears about injuries are never far away but the former drama student, who graduated with a solo performance on slavery that she wrote herself, is ready for a different stage this weekend.