“I came into this season with one huge ambition,” she says. “I wanted gold at the European Under-23s.” A fortnight ago in Poland, she triumphed. A week later, she won the senior 400m title at the AAA championships in Birmingham. Her performance secured her a place in the world championship team for the first time.
For now, she is running in the relay, but in Friday’s Norwich Union Grand Prix at Crystal Palace she is hoping to be quick enough to earn a role in the individual event in France.
Her ambition remains the property of Britain, but it was a close-run thing. Karagounis, 21, is married to Leonidas, a Greek javelin thrower and fellow student at the University of Nottingham. With the Olympic Games in Athens only a year away, his country tried to tempt her to compete for them.
Greece offered greater financial benefits than she receives, and bonuses for winning events. “Why did I stay? I am not 100% sure,” she says. “They have a good support system and I was tempted.
“It would have been something special to run for Greece in the Olympic year in Athens, but there are no regrets. There will always be times when I see other Greek athletes and the bonuses they receive, yet I went to Poland to win rather than worrying what was coming at the end of it.
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“The Greek authorities approached me before the Commonwealth Games last year. My husband’s coach works for the organising body. We discussed many things. They anticipate their 4x400m team will win a medal in Athens. That’s quite an attraction, but the British relay team has a good chance.
“I probably would have been given an initial ban from the sport if I switched countries. It might have meant missing the Commonwealths and European Under-23s, or more. That is something I did not want to do.”
At home, she insists she talks Greek as much as possible, which is naturally no problem for Leonidas. He is taking a PhD at Nottingham and they met during a training night on the local track in 1997. He had come to Britain to study and they have been married for almost two years. He returns to Greece when he can to compete, but his javelin best is 61.75m, substantially short of the mark required to make the world championships or the Olympics.
She says: “His family live in Athens, about half an hour from the Olympic stadium. He might have too much to do to make the Olympics. It is not on his list of targets.”
Karagounis is a fresh face in a changing era for women’s 400m running. The event has not been the same since the epic final in Sydney almost three years ago. Australian Cathy Freeman, the champion, has been forced to retire; Katharine Merry of Britain cannot shake off illness following a lengthy injury; and France’s Marie Jose Perec, who did not even make it to the starting line at those Olympics, now finds her career in the balance. While Karagounis might be on the lowest level of lottery funding — about £10,000 a year — she knows the opportunity she has seized this season is likely to increase her status significantly on the world scene and, possibly, financially.
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If Merry and Scotland’s Lee McConnell are fit, Britain has an outstanding chance of winning a medal at the 4x400m relay in Paris. It would be an extraordinary end to a difficult 12 months for Karagounis. Her father, Malcolm, died in November, having been diagnosed with cancer. She chose not to compete and missed the indoor season, including the world championships in Birmingham.
When she won in Poland, she said: “I wish my dad was around. But I feel he is here, watching over me.” She is doing her best to adjust to life without him. “That was an emotional victory. My dad was a great supporter of my career. It has been tough. It is getting easier as time passes.”
Karagounis, who was born in Nottingham, runs for Birchfield Harriers and won her European title after achieving a silver medal two years earlier. She won in Poland in a personal best time of 51.78, an indication of the improvement she has made since joining her coach, Cameron Seely, three years ago. “I have made huge developments thanks to him,” she says. “My best time then was 54.32.”
She has managed to edge her way towards world class level amid a life that demands a mixture of roles: she is a wife, an athlete, a student and, when she can, a worker at Karroo, a shop in Nottingham that sells hats, bags and accessories. “I have an arrangement that is perfect,” she says. “I work as often or as little as I can. I have been there a year. It is good to earn a bit of extra income. We plan in advance when I am going to work — and then equally when I am not. I explained that to them when they offered me the job and they are fine with it. I am predominantly a student. I do my best to get the balance right. It all mounts up and you have to plan carefully. My aim is to be a full-time athlete and I don’t have any specific idea of what job I want to do.”
She will begin her last year at Nottingham next month and, fittingly, part of her dissertation will be on the ancient Olympics. “Once you go to Athens, you can see the history that is there,” she says.
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“I thought classical civilisations would be a good course to do. It is fascinating to learn something more about it. It is ancient Greek and Roman history, although it is more literature-based. I had never studied it before and I just liked the sound of it.
“We had been to Greece, I was deciding on what I wanted to do, it was something that interested me and it seemed like the right choice. Not all universities did the course. Nottingham was one of the few that did.”
Her immediate target is Friday’s meeting at Crystal Palace. Karagounis needs to lower her personal best time by 0.41sec to achieve the world championship qualifying standard. The race will provide the step up in class she needs, with Jamaica’s Lorraine Fenton, who is No 2 in the world this year, Sanya Richards, the American champion, and world champion Amy Mbacke Thiam of Senegal all in the field.
“Two years ago I just missed out on going to Edmonton as part of the relay squad (at the world championships),” she says. “I’ve achieved my main aim for this season, but I’m not finished yet.”