For Christine Ohuruogu, being vastly more experienced than the sister with whom she trains under the guidance of coach Lloyd Cowan, the relationship is pretty straightforward. On the eve of the season-opening International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Diamond League in Doha last month, she spoke with fervour about Victoria's potential and her pleasure in being able to help her develop as an athlete.

Twenty-year-old Victoria Ohuruogu, who has been named in Britain's 400m relay squad for the European Team Championships along with elder sister Christine, the Olympic and former world champion

The younger Ohuruogu has won English schools titles and represented Britain at the inaugural 2010 Youth Olympics in Singapore. She has already struck out in a different direction as regards her education – while Christine did linguistics at University College London, Victoria is studying sculpture at University of the Arts London.

On the subject of having big sis bossing her around, she comments: "She won't cut me any slack, which can be annoying (a lot of the time), but ultimately, I love her for it...Right now, compared to previous years, I feel like I have a lot more focus to get things done."

That has been reflected in her times this year. In Florida on April 27 she reduced her personal best by a second and a half in clocking 52.62 seconds – an achievement proudly flagged up by her elder sister in Doha – and on May 27 she followed up with second place at the Bedford International Games in 53.63.

Christine Ohuruogu, second right, celebrates her most recent – gold in the 400m relay at this year's European Indoor Championships in Gothenburg

Christine spoke passionately in Qatar on the subject of her sister's athletic progress: "I want to push her," she said. "Because sport is tough and you never know how long you will have in it. You can't just for wait to happen. You have to go out and make them happen. It is not enough to have talent – you have to get as far as you can go."

Britain's rowing sisters have a different relationship, being much closer in age, but Monica has been firmly in the "big sister" role, having established herself at senior international level in 2011, when she was in the eight which finished fourth at the European Championships.

She was able to welcome Pam, almost two years her junior, to the British squad last year, although she herself narrowly missed out on Olympic qualification last summer. But at the tail end of what she has described as a "frustrating" year, Monica finished on a high in helping the British women's eight take bronze at the European Championships last September.

Monica began her journey towards another Olympic challenge at Rio in 2016 when she raced in the quadruple sculls at the first World Cup of the season in Sydney three months ago. In Windsor, she will compete in the same international team as her sister for the first time.

Twenty-three year old Pam, whose Army career was ended by severe arthritis, is well acquainted with the Eton Dorney course, having won Paralympic gold on it last summer in company with Naomi Riches, David Smith, James Roe and cox Lily van der Broeke in the legs, trunk and arms mixed coxed four event.

Pam Relph, who won rowing gold in the mixed four at the London 2012 Paralympics, will join elder sister Monica in the British team at the World Cup event taking place on the Olympic course

Thus the Ohuruogus and the Relphs become the latest representatives of generations of sporting siblings who have flourished together within international sport.

One of the closest parallels in athletics was formed by twins Angela and Susan Tooby, who competed in the same British team at the 1988 Olympics.

Angela won a bronze medal in the 1986 Commonwealth Games, 10,000m behind Anne Audain of New Zealand and the popular home winner Liz Lynch – later to marry Peter McColgan. Two years later she added individual and team silver medals in the IAAF World Cross Country championships and fell a little further behind McColgan in the Seoul Olympic 10,000m, finishing in 29th place in a race where the Scot took silver behind Russia's Olga Bondarenko, who later served a doping ban.

Sister Susan was in the same Seoul Olympic team – if that doesn't sound too much like a tongue-twister – and competed with honour in the marathon, finishing 12th in a personal best of 2hr 31min 33sec in a race won by Portugal's Rosa Mota.

More recently, British athletics teams have featured other siblings, such as Alex and Ashlee Nelson, who won golds at 200m and the 4x100m relay respectively at the 2007 European Junior Championships.

Belgian track fans have been accustomed in recent years to regard 400m running as a family affair, given the presence in the world's elite of twin brothers Kevin and Jonathan Borlée, who were born on February 22 in the same year that the Tooby girls competed together in Seoul.

Kevin won the European title in Barcelona three years ago, and followed up with bronze at the 2011 World Championships in Daegu before reaching the final at the London 2012 Olympics, where he finished fifth, one place ahead of his twin, who had set a national record of 44.43sec in the qualifying round.

In a somewhat freaky turn of events, the two brothers suffered from identical stress fractures within six weeks of each other in 2009. Their sympathetic suffering mirrored similar cases involving other twins, such as the Swedish twin high hurdlers Susanna and Jenny Kallur, who suffered identical stress fractures in 2008.

Swedish high hurdlers Jenny (left) and Susanna Kallur who had surgery in 2008 for identical stress fractures

Susanna established herself as a junior, winning the world junior 100m hurdles title in 2000 and the European under 23 title in 2003 before taking gold over 60m hurdles at the European Indoor Championships of 2005 and 2007, and becoming European 100m hurdles champion in 2006, when she also won world indoor bronze. In 2008 she set a world indoor 60m hurdles record of 7.68sec.

Jenny, four minutes older than her twin – both are now 32 – won a world junior sprint relay bronze in 2000 and finished in silver medal position behind her younger sister over 60m hurdles at the 2005 European Indoor Championships.

The United States fielded its own pair of 400m siblings before the Borlée brothers made their international mark. Twins Calvin and Alvin Harrison were in the 4x400m relay team which earned gold at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, with Alvin running the first leg and Calvin the third, in company with Antonio Pettigrew and world record holder Michael Johnson.

Sadly those Olympic golds were all revoked in 2004 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) when Jerome Young, who had run for the team in a qualifying heat, was banned for doping. Although they were restored on appeal in 2005, the medals were stripped once again in 2008 following a doping admission by Pettigrew.

By that time, Calvin's own doping ban had meant that the gold medals won by the US relay team at the 2003 World Championships had had to be returned. Calvin was suspended in August 2004, and two months later Alvin was suspended by the US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA). At the age of 30, the twins who had done so much together – including living together in a Ford Mustang coupe when homeless, and achieving the historic Olympic victory – had doping suspension in common. All very sad.

In rowing, arguably the most famous and successful twins are Giuseppe and Carmine Abbagnale, who dominated the coxed pairs event for a decade after winning the first of seven world titles in 1981. They also won Olympic gold in the Los Angeles 1984 Games and Seoul 1988 Games, but had to settle for silver at the Barcelona 1992 Olympics, where they were beaten by another pair of distinguished sporting brothers – Greg and Jonny Searle, who took gold for Britain.

Olympic rowers Cameron (left) and Tyler Winklevoss en route to court in pursuit of some of Facebook's millions

More recently two other rowing brothers – Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss – have reached the heights of the sport, competing in the men's pairs at the Beijing 2008 Games, where they finished sixth in the final, and earning Blues for Oxford in the 2010 Boat Race.