Running from her past... The triumph of Linford Christie's niece Rachel

By Sarah Oliver for MailOnline
Updated: 16:52 EDT, 20 June 2009

Winning form: Rachel Christie shows her glamorous side

She was only a child, but Rachel Christie can still remember the day she learned her father Russell had been murdered.

He was missing from home and her mother Diana decided to call the police. Together they walked to a neighbour's flat - they could not afford a telephone of their own.

Diana, mother of Russell's three children and pregnant with his fourth, gave officers a description of him and what he was wearing when he had left their West London home. It matched a body in the morgue.

'I saw her face crumple. I will never forget the look,' says Rachel, now 20. 'As they gave her details she recognised bit by bit that it was my dad and she started to cry like she'd never stop.

'I was eight. It didn't seem possible. Like all little girls, I thought my dad was too big and too strong to come to any harm.

'I had - and still have - a crystal-clear image of the last time I'd seen him alive. I said, "Bye, Dad," and he replied, "Bye, darling, see you later." You do, don't you? You never think that family life won't just go on.'

In fact, Russell Christie's life, punctuated by drugs, violent crime and jail terms, had come to an end several days before he was reported missing. He was stabbed in the neck in a street squabble over cocaine.

It became national news when he was revealed to be the wayward brother of British athletics legend Linford Christie.

The tragedy, just before Christmas 1996, could have destroyed Rachel, as could a childhood constrained by poverty and urban violence, and her father's regular stretches in prison.

But she has chosen to let it fortify rather than corrupt her. And today, she stands on the cusp of international success in not one but two fields.

Rachel has followed her uncle on to the athletics track and is in training for the 2012 Olympic qualifiers. A 400m sprinter and heptathlete, she is coached by Olympic gold medallist Christie and the man credited with turning him into Britain's most decorated male athlete, Ron Roddan.

To fund her training, she entered a beauty pageant and, to her surprise, was crowned Miss London City in May. Next month she competes for the Miss England crown and its ticket to the Miss World competition in South Africa in December.

'I think,' she says softly, 'my dad would be proud. He was always on at us to work hard. He wanted us to have a better life than him. I suppose in fulfilling my dreams, I'm fulfilling his, too.

'I know what people think about him but I prefer to know the father he was to us at home. He was a huge character, always laughing, very engaged with his kids.

'I have ordinary happy memories - dancing around the living room to his reggae, him teaching me how to cook fish Caribbean-style and his gift for drawing cartoon characters.

Fast track: Rachel Christie training for the 2012 Olympic qualifiers

'He was in and out of jail but Mum sheltered us from that. She took us to see him every week when he was inside, but she made the best of it. When he was in jail on the Isle of Wight she used to make it like a day out to the beach with a trip on the ferry.

'We didn't discuss their troubles and we still don't. Now he's gone I feel I know as much as I need to.'

Rachel suffered depression after her father's death and admits she was almost tempted into the same West London street scene that ultimately cost Russell his life.

By 14, she was spending more time hanging out with friends than in the classroom. She also ditched the athletics training she had begun aged 11 at the Linford Christie Stadium, home of the legendary Thames Valley Harriers.

'I got friendly with the wrong people and stopped being interested in school or sport,' she says.

'I was spending too much time with a girl whose ambition was to go on the dole and have babies. I knew that wasn't the future I wanted. That made me grow up. I accepted I was an athlete - and started afresh.'

Rachel toyed with distances and disciplines before settling on the 400m sprint. She enjoyed early success at major meetings in her mid-teens but has only just re-entered competitive racing after an 18-month break due to injury.

More recently, she has been exploring the possibilities the heptathlon offers.

She trains for up to three-and-a-half hours a day, six days a week, her dedication evident in her 5ft 10in, finely muscled physique.

'I must be the only beauty queen who eats cake every day,' she giggles, 'because I burn off every crumb.'

She will have to shave several seconds off her personal best to qualify for the Olympic trials but she is confident.

'I don't think my uncle and my coach would encourage my ambitions if they were not realistic,' she says. 'I have a winner's mentality. I know I can go faster and I am willing to put the work in to get there.

'When I come first or do a personal best I always want to get straight back on to the track and do it again, but better.'

It's hard not to wonder if her Olympic hopes might have been overinflated by her uncle's success, something she denies.

'I am my own person, I am not overawed by my uncle and I don't feel the need to live up to anyone,' she says.

Yet one of Britain's three 400m places will go to reigning Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu and there is intense competition for the remaining two. In the heptathlon, Britain can already field two top athletes, leaving just one closely contested place.

Family hero: Linford Christie after winning gold at the Barcelona Olympics

Nor does Rachel yet have sponsorship or funding - hence the beauty pageant. She says: 'When I was younger I was scouted by model agents in the street, but I was convinced they would be sleazy agencies so I didn't pursue the offers.

'I applied to Miss England because I thought it might give me an entry into legitimate modelling and that would help me fund my training. I had no idea I'd make the finals.'

But she did, and although her childhood aspirations focused on the race track rather than the catwalk, she is savvy enough to know that becoming a beauty queen and model will be a passport to a successful future.

Not that she wants to ignore her past or deny the father who collected convictions the way his younger brother collected sporting titles.

In 1988, as Linford was taking a silver in the Seoul Olympics, Russell was on the run after almost mowing down a policeman in his car.

In 1989, when his brother became captain of the British men's athletics team, Russell was jailed for three years for attacking a teenage former lover with a baseball bat and subjecting her to a four-hour kidnap ordeal.

On the night Rachel's uncle became Olympic 100m champion in Barcelona, a warrant was issued for her father's arrest for allegedly stealing clothes and handling stolen credit cards.

In 1994, he was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for theft and beating up another lover, after slamming her head against the window of his car 'like a rag doll'.

But his daughter will not apologise for him. 'You never forget your roots,' she says. 'My background is everything to me. My family and the loss of my dad have made me all that I am.

'I saw him as just my dad and a good one, whatever the outside world has to say. I miss him dreadfully, in fact, I miss him more as I get older. I would love a father to see me on the track and on the catwalk - though he might have something to say about the bikini.

'I want to change my fate, my destiny - not live a life on benefits, not be some kid from a rough estate. We struggled for years, we had no holidays, no car - the day we children got something we wanted was a rare one. So I know I have to work hard. When you begin with very little, maybe you have to aim high.'

According to Miss World's organisers, the global glamour contest is still the second most watched television programme in the world - topped only by the Olympics. If Rachel Christie succeeds on race track and catwalk, she could feature in both.

• The Miss England Grand Final is on Monday, July 20 at The Hilton Metropole Hotel, West London. For tickets and information visitwww.missengland.info. It is raising money for The Variety Club of Great Britain; b-eat, the eating disorder charity; and The National Autistic Society.