LONDON, England (BBC) – Sanya Richards has still to synchronise her peak performances with championship 400-metre finals, but she has not put a foot wrong on the European circuit and particularly in the Golden League.

The American has not lost a Golden League race since she became a senior.

Following her latest run in Oslo, and with the next Golden League meeting in Rome today, she is just one short of the women’s record number of 36 races under the 50-second mark.

That was set in 1977-1986 by Marita Koch, who has become a symbol of the era of dominance of women’s athletics by the former East Germany.

Richards looks set to match that total within the space of five years and may well go on to be the first with 50 sub-50s.

Koch’s 1985 world record time of 47.60 sec now seems like a figure from science fiction. Richards’ 48.70 from 2006 is the closest approach by current athletes.

Then again, not getting near to the world record hardly harmed the careers of Marie-José Perec or Cathy Freeman, two of the most celebrated women athletes of the past 15 years.

But they won multiple global gold medals, and for all her dominance, Richards has none.

Our own Christine Ohuruogu has deepened the contrast. She holds the world and Olympic titles but has just two sub-50s, one each when claiming those gold.

The faster of these (49.61 in Osaka in 2007) is only 166th on the world all-time list of performances.

She doesn’t even hold the British record, but as she told us firmly in Oslo: “I don’t chase times, I chase medals; they are my priority.”

We can’t argue with that, but note that Ohuruogu was almost two seconds behind Richards in Oslo.

Only a major turnaround in form will see her successfully defend her world title in Berlin from the challenge of Richards and Jamaica’s Shericka Williams (49.98 in Oslo).

For the moment, Richards could not be doing more to re-establish herself as the favourite for world gold.

Her winning time from Oslo of 49.23 equalled a track record which has stood since 1983 and was clearly the best performance of the evening.

Today she is due to run again in Rome. Coincidentally, this was also the venue of Koch’s final sub-50 and indeed her last-ever race at the IAAF Grand Prix Final in 1986.