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In 2003, sprint phenom and would-be heir to Mo Greene’s crown as sprint king, Dwain Chambers, was busted in one of the biggest steroid scandals of all time. He served his time away from the sport while pursuing American football and laying low. In 2006, he was reinstated to compete again by the IAAF but his own National Governing Body and many European meets have been giving him a hard time- init
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Dwain should seriously consider changing nationality and compete for another country. Part of his struggles in the aftermath of the Balco scandals are exacerbated by UKA. He has been forthright about his involvement and seems remorseful unlike other cheats who deny till hells end despite the overwhelming evidence. I agree with you, this guy deserves a second chance. If he can’t get it in the UK go somewhere else.
To be honest I’m kinda divided on the topic. Doing what UKA has done is one of the only ways I think that would really make dopers think twice about it. BUT, on the other hand, the rules are the rules and it would almost be hypocritical to force Chambers to play by them (for not playing them while doping) but then make up rules as you go to punish him extra.
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I’m a big fan of Mr Chambers and had a nice conversation with him at last year National Championships…
He is determined to be one of fastest men in the world again and basically show that UKA shouldn’t select Craig Pickering for all the races when Dwain is much faster than him…
I agree with Mike that UKA’s system is so harsh that it really does send a messege. Imagine if all countries to that, one time and your done!
Dwain has done everything asked of him though. And with no support or funding, he achieved a medal at last years world championships and ran 10.00 at last years trials without training that much because of all the court issues! He’s an amazing talent…
Definitely a real talent. If you follow the Balco timeline he was likely a better overall sprinter BEFORE he doped (or at least before Balco). He set his PR while with Balco & Remi but other than that he seemed to be better. I think he and a non-doped Gatlin are great woulda, coulda, shoulda guys who likely could have run about as fast as they did without PEDs if they had stayed with the coaches who got them to elite levels rather than change camps. Now they’ve both squandered what should have been their athletic prime.
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The crazy thing to me is that from a media stand point, and a punitive standpoint, it appears as though they are treating him like the first guy who ever used PEDs. Personally I can’t make heads or tails of the war on steroids in North America or elsewhere.
Bonds is scrutinized like no other, Clemens (and others) is mostly left off the hook. Merriman gets a four game suspension. Pain killers are left off the list (Schilling I’m looking at you). Lance Armstrong has a cloud of controversy surrounding his accomplishments, Floyd Landis doesn’t help that situation. Ben Johnson gets a second (and third) chance, then blows it. I’d really like to know how many guys in the NFL have done juice, it’s got to be some crazy high percentage. I know a famous linebacker for the San Diego Chargers was caught with a car full of dbol his senior year at my college, nothing came of it. There is no consistent precedent for dealing with this kind of stuff, and Chambers seems to be the latest addition to this list, and I’m not even that familiar with European drug violations, which from what I hear is likely a long, long list, especially in IOC sports.
Chambers runs 6.59….6.55 & then 6.52 in the Birmingham uK meet today, 3 runs within hours of each other, and all great times. I say fair play to him for sticking with it, despite all the continuous bad press. He served his time, paid the piper, and surely any benefit that was there from the doping years is now long gone.
To run such times so early in the season with the intense financial pressure on him, and the British rag press on his case shows the talent that was always there.The negative impact of this pressure would impact his times on the minus side more than any doping in the past would have given him an edge in my opinion.
I say let him run, others that are considering juicing up might stay clean when they see that just like Chambers there might be no need as the legs are already there and just be patient.
Wow wow F-ing wow!
An incredible performance…watch out for 6.45 at the European trials or championships!
That is a pretty amazing series of runs in one day. 6.52 is a PR right? What was his old 60m pr?
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Yes pr…previous best was 6.53 in the World Champ FINALS last year…he’s clearly ready for something huge! He usually peaks pretty well…
Why should UKA back Chambers with funds or opportunities? He had the chance and blew his trust by using PEDs. UKA has a ton of younger talent that is as good if not better than Chambers at the same age. The biggest problem I have with UKA is they cut funds to their sprinters and all of them are young.
So for Nick to pick on Pickering is a joke. How about I try to right articles and persuade on why Pickering should be the next UK long jumper?
So for Nick to pick on Pickering is a joke. How about I try to right articles and persuade on why Pickering should be the next UK long jumper?
When did Nick pick on Pickering? I re-read everything and I can’t see that anywhere.
Also, I don’t even think the argument is about funding or granting opportunities…more like taking them away when there aren’t rules in place to do so. As I said I’m split on this one but I think if you expect the athletes to play by the rules (stay legal in the first place and then serve suspension if caught) then the governing bodies should have clearly defined rules regarding how they handle these things rather than making them up on the fly as UKA seems to be doing.
Also, if UK has better talent than Chambers at the same age they certainly aren’t proving it. Besides Dwain, there short sprints (especially individually) has really been a huge disappointment for the last 8 years in my opinion.
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Haha! Dbandre come on now, seriously? I never stated anything which wasn’t true! Never did i pick on anyone, i simply pointed out facts and also how he and his supporters feel on the subject…Dwain is faster the Craig. That simple.
And also, TRUST ME…Dwain is top 5 most talented sprinters in the WORLD, not just the UK. Williamson is the next best thing and he trains with Dwain and is very much supported by UKA.
And are you kidding me with the talent argument? Please name this TON of talent that is equal to or better than Dwain. Who can break 6.60 EVERYTIME they run and run 10.00 or faster? ? ? ? ? ? ?
And go for it, write an article about it, lol…I seem to remember a while Linford Cristie tried long jumping in a meet and couldn’t jump 7 meters yet could break 10 seconds at the time. It isn’t all about speed Dbandre.
Off-topic, but I never knew Christie tried LJing. That kinda thing always intrigues me. Was it a real pro meet or just a local comp?
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It was a local meeting in England…but i know a few coaches who were there…they said he just couldn’t get off the board at all…I would like to have seen it…
Yeah i always wondered as well. Can you imagine a world class sprinter taking off from 11.5 m/s or faster! i dont think they would go anywhere personally…
im for chambers, he did his time.
Poll has been added. Please cast your vote.
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If the IAAF or UKA wanted Chambers out for life, they should have actually banned him for life.
I can understand why they want to keep him out, but he served the sentence he was given, and should be allowed to compete. Chambers also should expect extra scrutiny and testing protocols.
Desperate Dwain set to play the race card
Sprinter hits out at hypocrisy of being banned for GB today due to an ‘agenda’ which will be revealed in his explosive book
By Simon Turnbull
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Contrary to the perception in many quarters, Dwain Chambers did not return to competition from a drugs ban last year, when he became such a national cause célèbre. He was not doing so yesterday either when the national track-writing pack followed him to Birmingham, where the fastest man in Europe was racing in a minor meeting for club athletes, instead of heading to Glasgow, where a Great Britain team (from which Chambers was barred) was taking part in the traditional televised international curtain-raiser to the indoor season.
It was in 2003 that Chambers tested positive for the designer steroid THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) and several other illicit substances. It was in summer 2006 that the Londoner made his return as a sprinter and was instantly welcomed back into the British team for the European Cup in Malaga after dusting down the cobwebs at a Gateshead grand prix meeting.
“It’s crazy,” Chambers said, with a hangdog look in his Snoop Dogg hoodie, before getting to his marks in what was actually race No 33 in his prolonged comeback, in the 60m heats of the Birmingham Games at the National Indoor Arena yesterday. “And it throws me off every time: the fact I have to deal with this saga three years on. It just doesn’t make sense to me.”
Chambers would not be the only one to suggest it makes precious little sense that he can be barred from running for Britain in an international against the USA, Sweden, Germany and a Commonwealth Select team in Glasgow (because the Aviva International at the Kelvin Hall happens to be part of the EuroMeetings group, which has a policy of precluding athletes who served doping suspensions) yet be free to go for 60m gold for his country in the main event of the winter season, the European Indoor Championships in Turin in March.
Having crossed the moral sporting Rubicon when he chose to get in league with Victor Conte and the Balco drugs factory back in 2002, the one-time triallist with the Hamburg Sea Devils American football team can hardly expect much public sympathy to come his way. He can, though, be expected to be treated the same as every other tainted athlete who has served aban and then attempted to go on the straight and narrow.
Instead, while the Brazilian long-jumper Maurren Maggi was free to claim gold in Beijing last summer (with a conspicuous absence of fuss about her doping history), Chambers was left kicking his heels as an outcast back home, having failed in a High Court bid to overturn the British Olympic Association bye-law which bars past drugs offenders from Olympic selection for Britain. For the same reason, he can do nothing but shrug his shoulders in frustration when he learns that Justin Gatlin, the American sprinter banned for four years after a second doping offence in 2006, is talking about returning to mount a challenge for Olympic 100m gold in London in 2012.
Chambers was not even allowed to run in the grand prix meeting in his home town at Crystal Palace last summer (because of the EuroMeetings directive)- unlike Torri Edwards, who failed a drugs test in 2004. When the anomaly was pointed out to the meeting organisers, they said Chambers had been banned for a full two-year term while Edwards had served only 17 months after the use of nikethamide was downgraded to being punishable by a one-year ban- presumably making the American sprinter only a little bit pregnant in the doping sense.
“It’s just hypocritical,” Chambers said. “We need to have the same rules from all governing bodies. There were a number of athletes who failed drug tests in the past who competed in Beijing. My appeal was just a fight to add balance, unity, some fairness all round. If it was the same for everyone then fine, I could deal with that. It just seems there is an agenda about me. You don’t hear the authorities talking about Carl Myerscough, do you?”
Indeed, while the Blackpool shot-putter (who tested positive in 1999 for a cocktail of banned substances) was a routine pick for Great Britain at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia last March, the selectors issued a statement making it known that they were obliged against their wishes to choose Chambers for the 60m. “They also picked him for the European Cup last year,” Chambers said. “They didn’t give me a phone call.”
Myerscough happens to be white, which might explain why Chambers’ autobiography, due to be published on 2 March, four days before the European Indoor Championships, is called Race Against Me. “You’re smart,” he said with a grin, when asked about the obvious connotation of the title. “You don’t need me to explain. Just wait and see. It’ll be a good read. I don’t hold anything back in there.”
Another subject in the book is suicide, something Chambers confesses he considered at his lowest point. “It was a flickering thought. When it came in, I processed it and got rid of it. I thought, ‘I can’t do that’. I was at the stage of becoming a father, so I wasn’t prepared to be that selfish. I wasn’t going to stoop that low.”
Now a father of three, two months short of his 31st birthday, Chambers admits that, with his earning power as an athlete virtually hamstrung, he needs the money from his book to fund him as a full-time athlete for at least another year. He gives a wry smile at the thought of those who will be happy to see him struggling, three years after he finished serving the official sentence for his sporting crime.
“Isn’t there one of these footballers that got accused of sexual assault and he’s all right to keep playing?” he said. “It does not seem to be a problem. I didn’t assault nobody. I didn’t kill no-body. I didn’t hurt nobody but myself.”
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Sprinter posts world’s second best 60m time but will not make demands
Published Date: 02 February 2009
By Phil Casey
DWAIN Chambers will rule himself out of British relay squads if any of the team object to his presence.
Chambers is barred from running in most meetings following his two-year ban for testing positive for the steroid THG in 2003. However, he is free to compete in major championships outside the Olympics, including this year’s World Championships in Berlin.
The 30-year-old would like to compete in the 4x100metres relay as well as the individual 100m, but acknowledges he may not be welcomed with open arms. One likely team-mate, Craig Pickering, was an outspoken critic of Chambers’ failed attempt to overturn his Olympic ban last year, and was no more enthusiastic about the prospect of being handed a baton by him either. “It’s not my decision. If he’s put in a relay team I have to deal with that,” Pickering said after winning the 60m in Saturday’s Aviva International in Glasgow. “I have no decision over who is put in the team. My job is to run in a relay.”
Chambers himself said yesterday: “I would like to run in the relay if the chance presents itself, but it’s going to be difficult. The camaraderie needs to be established and I haven’t had that opportunity. We need to have a team spirit, if there are egos and attitudes it’s not going to work. It’s got to be four guys working together. If people are going to have a problem with me I won’t participate.”
Chambers has few chances to participate in races either before the European Indoors or World Championships, admitting his requests to race promoters receive no response. But he is more hopeful of a response from Charles van Commenee when the Dutchman officially begins his role as head coach of UK Athletics on 9 February.
“I’m sure we will be communicating, but I don’t know what to expect,” added Chambers. “He said he accepts me back, I just have to find out what role he expects me to play. I’ve sent out a few requests to race promoters, but no responses. It’s the same as last year, but I’m in a better place mentally.”
While Pickering won the 60 metres for Great Britain clocking 6.57 seconds at the Kelvin Hall, just 0.02secs outside his personal best, Chambers, banned from competing in Glasgow because it is part of the EuroMeetings group of events which excludes athletes with drug violations, went even quicker in Birmingham.
Chambers, competing in the low-key Birmingham Games more usually aimed at club athletes, ran 6.59 in his heat, 6.52 in the semi-finals and 6.54 in winning the final at the National Indoor Arena. The 30-year-old’s semi-final time was the second quickest in the world this year- just 0.01 slower than American Mike Rodgers in the Millrose Games on Friday night- while 6.54 in the final equalled the time which won him world indoor silver in Valencia last year. “I had a point to prove and I think I did that,” said Chambers.
Last year Pickering spoke out about Chambers’ return to athletics after his two-year ban, insisting drugs cheats should face a lifetime ban. And the 22-year-old feels that was a major factor in a disappointing season which culminated in the botched baton exchange in the 4x100m relay at the Olympics in Beijing. “I got involved too much last year, which was a mistake of mine because it’s something I believe in, but this year I’m just shutting up,” said Pickering. “He’s one of the athletes I’ve got to beat. If I have a good day and he has an off day I may have a chance. It was getting personal but I’m a professional and I can’t beat people who aren’t here.
“I’m pleased with (my performance in Glasgow] and I think there’s a bit more to come. My PB is 6.55 so with a bit of race sharpness we’ll be looking at 6.53. I’ll need to run that because there are people running quicker than me.”
The other highlight on the track in Glasgow was a new British record of seven minutes 40.99 seconds for Mo Farah in the 3,000m, knocking 0.10s off John Mayock’s time set in February 2002. That was worth a total of $9,000 to the Somalia-born 25-year-old.
He said: “That was a great start to the indoor season, I knew I was in good shape but not that good. To break the British record is a real bonus, I never expected that.”
Andy Turner was second in the 60m hurdles and admitted he is “running angry” after recently failing in his third appeal to win back lottery funding. “I want to go out every race and prove that I’m not too old.”
In the women’s race, American star Lolo Jones overcame a false start to win in 7.95, ahead of Britain’s Sarah Claxton. “I’m relieved to get a race under my belt, especially after the false start,” said Jones, who memorably hit the penultimate hurdle in the Olympic final to ruin what looked a certain gold in Beijing. “I never false start so that was shocking to me. I was surprised by the time because I didn’t think it was a very clean race.”
In a match won by the Commonwealth Select team ahead of Britain, Germany, the United States and Sweden, Greg Rutherford set a new indoor PB of 7.91m in the long jump, but Steve Lewis managed just 5.35m in the pole vault, 40cm down on his personal best set earlier this month.
In the women’s 1,500m there was an impressive victory too for Susan Scott in her home city. “I really enjoyed it,” she said. “I just need to improve my tactics at 1,500 metres.
“With every race you get more experience, but it was good to get the first one out of the way this year.”
Scott is now turning her attention towards achieving the qualifying time for next month’s European Indoor Championship in Turin.
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CHAMBERS WILL ACCEPT SQUAD VERDICT
By Phil Casey, PA Sport
Dwain Chambers will rule himself out of British relay squads if any of the team object to his presence.
Chambers is barred from running in most meetings following his two-year ban for testing positive for the steroid THG in 2003.
However, he is free to compete in major championships outside the Olympics, including this year’s World Championships in Berlin.
The 30-year-old would like to compete in the 4x100metres relay as well as the individual 100m, but acknowledges he may not be welcomed with open arms.
One likely team-mate, Craig Pickering, was an outspoken critic of Chambers’ failed attempt to overturn his Olympic ban last year, and was no more enthusiastic about the prospect of being handed a baton by him either.
“It’s not my decision. If he’s put in a relay team I have to deal with that,” Pickering said after winning the 60m in Saturday’s Aviva International in Glasgow.
“I have no decision over who is put in the team. My job is to run in a relay.”
And Chambers said: “I would like to run in the relay if the chance presents itself but it’s going to be difficult.
“The camaraderie needs to be established and I haven’t had that opportunity.
“We need to have a team spirit, if there are egos and attitudes it’s not going to work.
“It’s got to be four guys working together. If people are going to have a problem with me I won’t participate.”
Chambers has few chances to participate in races either before the European Indoors or World Championships, admitting his requests to race promoters receive no response.
But he is more hopeful of a response from Charles van Commenee when the Dutchman officially begins his role as head coach of UK Athletics on February 9.
“I’m sure we will be communicating, but I don’t know what to expect,” Chambers added.
“He said he accepts me back, I just have to find out what role he expects me to play.
“I’ve sent out a few requests to race promoters but no responses. It’s the same as last year but I’m in a better place mentally.
“I just plan out what races I can participate in. I had Birmingham yesterday, the trials in Sheffield and European Indoors in Turin. Three races is all I’ve got and all I need.
“I’m having a lot more fun with my running. I don’t have to worry about appealing for the Olympics.
“I have an easy three years to concentrate on my athletics.”
Chambers is even talking boldly about taking on triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt at the World Championships, adding: “I will definitely give him a run for his money. We’ve studied him and know what we are up against, especially after I trained with him in 2006.
“I want to qualify and once I’m in that final anything can happen. I’m optimistic, my season is going very well so far.
“My goal is to win medals for myself and my country, that’s all I can ask for.”
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Dwain Chambers confident of challenging Usain Bolt
A 60 metres personal best of 6.52sec at the Birmingham Games on Saturday confirmed that, at the age of 30, he is quicker than ever and he is far from intimidated at the prospect of taking on his old training partner at the World Championships in Berlin this summer.
“He’s the man to beat and if I can get to that line before him, the job’s done,” said the Londoner. “He won’t be showboating with me on his tail.”
According to athletics statisticians, Chambers’ time on Saturday, which surpassed his previous best of 6.54sec set in Valencia last year when he won a silver medal at the World Indoor Championships, would equate to 9.85sec over 100 metres.
If the extrapolation is correct, it would have been fast enough to take the silver at the Beijing Olympics and break the European record into the bargain.
All academic, or course, but it has started Chambers thinking, and after five years of fielding questions about his drug-tainted past it is the future that now preoccupies him. Can he really give Bolt a run for his money?
“I beat him a few times in training but he would never admit that,” he said. “That’s something I’ve got up my sleeve. I know him. But then again, that was a few years ago and he’s gone way up the ladder and I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. But I’m patient about it and I know that every man has his day.”
Chambers is banned by Europe’s main event promoters and missed out on Saturday’s Aviva International in Glasgow but he is determined to make the most of what few racing opportunities come his way.
“I’m like a hungry dog that doesn’t get fed very often, so when I get my Pedigree Chum I’m going to trowel it down,” he said. “My mind is hungry and I just know that when I get my opportunities I will be out to make maximum impact.”
In Chambers’ absence from Glasgow, Craig Pickering won the 60m in an impressive 6.57sec, setting up an intriguing battle when the pair go head to head at the UK trials for the European Indoor Championships later this month.
But the star of the Scottish meeting was Mo Farah, who set a British record of 7min 40.99sec in the 3,000m- 0.10sec inside John Mayock’s six-year-old mark.
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I think it is part of the process of regaining trust. Right now Chambers is doing most everything right, except for probably making remarks about Seb Coe and Kelly Holmes.
because the Aviva International at the Kelvin Hall happens to be part of the EuroMeetings group, which has a policy of precluding athletes who served doping suspensions
If that is the policy of the Euromeetings group, then whomever has to live with it but if the ban decreed has been served he should be allowed to compete in any other circumstance.
For me,
“Andy Turner was second in the 60m hurdles and admitted he is “running angry” after recently failing in his third appeal to win back lottery funding. “I want to go out every race and prove that I’m not too old.”
is as troubling since the implication is he is being denied something based on age.
For me, [quote]“Andy Turner was second in the 60m hurdles and admitted he is “running angry” after recently failing in his third appeal to win back lottery funding. “I want to go out every race and prove that I’m not too old.”
is as troubling since the implication is he is being denied something based on age.[/quote]Off topic here but when investing money you have to do cost-analysis and seek returns on your investment. USATF (and I’d bet most other NGBs) take age in to account. In sports, I don’t think it’s discriminatory…it’s just reality. It shouldn’t preclude someone but it definitely has to be considered for the continued progress of a national team.
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Mike:
do cost-analysis and seek returns on your investment
Not off topic and maybe more “on topic” than one would think. Relating in a round about way to Phelps and loss of Kellog’s contract, would there be potential for sponsors of UKA to drop or reduce their support if a “known cheat”, Dwain Chambers, was placed on the team?
The flip side of that is with the re-emergence of the topic in general news, UKA has probably benefited from attention they may otherwise not have had. Any publicity is good publicity?
I was more taking into account that the athlete in question is still performing at a very high level and, depending on how various organizations view things, medal potential or high placement may or may not enter the picture (the process is, of course, a lot more complicated, still…)
Yeah I’m very familiar with all the arguments for an against as USATF has recently been forced to deal with similar issues…fund young, unproven athletes with the hopes that they develop to become medal winners; or fund the athletes who are in the twilights of their careers but still very close to podium positions (and maybe even still getting better).
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Published Date: 08 February 2009
By Mark Woods
FOR A man whose fame and infamy have been maintained on the flats of the track, Dwain Chambers constantly finds hurdles in his path. Seven days ago, he ran the fastest 60 metres of his indoor career in 6.52 seconds. If it were any other British athlete, we would be slavering unconditionally, hyping him as the man most likely to get the closest view of Usain Bolt’s heels later this summer while admiring his blistering power.
But this is, after all, Dwain Chambers. Not just a blur in spikes but an uncomfortable distraction to the entire sport.
It is an issue that won’t quickly disappear. In four weeks time, Chambers’ autobiography will appear, providing- so the PR machine claims- a true insight into the rise, fall and
attempted resurrection of a convicted drug cheat. There are tales of suicidal thoughts; of the angst of what has been lost; of the poverty that followed his expulsion, courtesy of his ill-fated association with San Francisco’s Balco Laboratories.
Next Saturday in Sheffield, Chambers will take his place within the legitimised fold of UK Athletics. The selection trials for March’s European Championships, incorporated within the Aviva UK Championships, are open to all who can wear a British vest. While the Londoner, now 30, has been excluded from many major meetings- including last Saturday’s International in Glasgow- as well as the Olympic Games, he is entitled to be chosen for Turin and should, on present form, have little trouble in punching his ticket.
And that, says Craig Pickering, is something his domestic rivals will just have to deal with, even though Chambers claims he will not accept a spot on a GB relay team if he is not wanted. Regardless of the personal indignation of his many detractors, there must come a point where, for the good of all, the focus is placed squarely on winning medals in 2012 rather on an individual who, bar a legal U-turn, will not be there.
“I think I did get caught up with the whole Dwain issue last year, right up to the Olympics,” admits Pickering, whose criticism of the former outcast has escalated into a running feud. “And I don’t think I was the only one. You were getting questions about it. I suppose I got involved. And it did creep into my thought process in training and competition. So I think this year,” he adds, “one of the things I have to do is put it to one side and run my own race.”
It’s not as if the UK’s leading sprinters have not had time to adjust to Chambers’ occasional presence. His two-year suspension ended in 2006. “It’s not my decision,” Pickering concedes of the possible relay quandary. “My job is just to run.”
Meanwhile, the head of the umbrella body that represents the interests of the UK’s Olympic competitors expects the country’s new anti-doping body to be more effective in utilising the knowledge of former drug offenders, like Chambers.
Pete Gardner, chief executive of the British Athletes Commission, is backing plans to give the soon-to-be-formed National Anti-Doping Organisation a remit to liaise with law enforcement agencies.
And although the BAC has criticised changes to the ‘whereabouts’ regime that now requires sportspeople to be available for random testing seven days a week, for a full pre-specified hour, Gardner anticipates a shift towards intelligence-gathering.
“Athletes as a whole fought very hard to keep Dwain off the Olympic team but that’s not to say there isn’t a feeling that he’s paid more for his crimes than others have done,” he said. “Part of the reason that he’s been seen not to be bringing information forward is that there hasn’t really been a mechanism for it up until now. ”
NADO has been largely modelled on its established Australian counterpart which regularly mines the sporting community for leads. That, argues Gardner, should allow testing to become more targeted. “We believe each test should be done with a reason behind it. Has someone’s performance level risen dramatically? Is it an at-risk sport? Is there some good intelligence? If so, that’s OK and I think most people would be happy to see that approach.”
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Dwain Chambers ran 6.51 today in the semis at the UK indoor champs. Craig Pickering did not advance. He was dq’d.
See HERE for details.
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Dwain Chambers: Clean pair of heels
Dwain Chambers is not the first London character to head to Turin looking for gold. It was in the northern Italian city that Michael Caine, in the guise of Charlie Croker, masterminded the ambush of a crock of precious metal in The Italian Job. “I wasn’t aware that it was set in Turin,” Chambers confesses. “You learn something new every day.”
Might the in-form sprinter learn to grab his Turin gold a little more decisively, though, than the British gang who were left hanging over a cliff with their loot? “I think so,” Chambers says, looking ahead to the challenge of the 60 metres at the European Indoor Championships, which take place in the Oval Lingotto on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. “And it’s not going to involve me stealing it. It’s going to involve me working hard for it, running faster than everybody else.”
There was a time, of course, when Chambers strove to pilfer gold from his rivals, often his British team-mates, while fuelled with THG and various other products of Victor Conte’s Balco laboratory. He succeeded in doing so in the 100m at the outdoor European Championships in Munich in 2002, but was caught by the drug testers a year later and was obliged to hand back the one individual gold medal he has won in a senior international championship, together with the rest of his ill-gotten gains.
That bust was six years ago. It was in 2006 that Chambers made his comeback, after serving a two-year suspension. Now 30, he happens to be running quicker on natural talent than he ever was with a body pumped full of steroids. The Belgrave Harrier has been in the form of his life over 60m in this indoor season, blitzing to personal bests of 6.52sec at the Birmingham Games and 6.51sec at the UK Championships in Sheffield. It is an ironic state of affairs that leaves him clear favourite for the continental crown in Turin. The next fastest man on the European rankings is Simeon Williamson, his British team-mate and fellow Londoner, with 6.53sec.
Should Chambers succeed, it would not be the first medal he has won since his comeback. At the outdoor European Championships in Gothenburg in 2006, he ran the lead-off leg for the winning British 4 x 100m relay quartet- after which Darren Campbell pointedly refused to accompany him on a lap of honour. And in March last year, he took the 60m silver medal at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia. This time, though, if Chambers were to emerge victorious he would be the first reinstated doping offender to stand alone at the top of a medal rostrum wearing a Great Britain tracksuit.
And that, in all probability, would provoke a repeat of the kind of moral outrage that surrounded him last year- when he returned from a failed attempt to make it in American football to find UK Athletics, the domestic governing body of the sport, attempting (unsuccessfully, as it proved) to bar him from the British team for the World Indoor Championships. He then lost a High Court attempt to overturn the British Olympic Association bylaw which bans past doping offenders from Britain’s Olympic team.
“I’m not going to get involved in all that,” Chambers says, wearily. “I’m just going to go out to Turin and win, and just continue doing that and that only. I don’t want to get involved in the politics no more. It just becomes tedious and messy. It becomes a war and I don’t want that. There’s enough craziness going on in the world already.
“It’s crazy that I still have to deal with this kind of stuff. It’s three years now since I finished my suspension and made my comeback. I’m just trying to turn things around and show that it can be done the right way. This is the best I’ve ever been running. I’ve taken a long time to grow up and mature and realise what ability I do have. I wish I’d realised it a long time ago, but you make mistakes in life. I made a mistake, a long time ago, and I’ve had to deal with it. I’d just like to close the chapter and move on.”
Happily for Chambers, Charles van Commenee, the new head coach of UK Athletics, is of the same mind. “Dwain has served his sentence,” the Dutchman said after watching him win in Sheffield three weeks ago. “I will treat him the same as any other athlete.”
All Chambers asks is to be treated the same as any other athlete who has the blemish of a positive drug test on their curriculum vitae, although the BOA bylaw means he will never get the opportunity to crown his rehabilitation with an Olympic gold medal, as the Canadian 110m hurdler Mark McKoy did in Barcelona in 1992 (four years after fleeing Seoul in the wake of Ben Johnson’s failed test and subsequently confessing to having himself been a steroid user)- and as the Brazilian long jumper Maurren Maggi did in Beijing last summer, with the minimum of fuss about her past indiscretion (she served a two-year suspension after testing positive for clostebol, an anabolic steroid, in 2003).
Chambers, who failed at the American football side Hamburg Sea Devils, continues to be portrayed as some kind of demonic creature of the sporting world, while Carl Myerscough slips into the British team, as the Blackpool shot-putter does again in Turin, with hardly a passing mention of the drugs test he failed 10 years ago. Myerscough happens to be white, which might help to explain why Chambers’ autobiography, which is published next Monday, carries the title Race Against Me.
Another subject in the book is suicide, which Chambers confesses he considered while at his lowest point. “It was literally a flickering thought,” he says. “When it came in, I processed it and got rid of it. I thought, ‘I can’t do that.’ I was at the stage of becoming a father, so I wasn’t prepared to be that selfish. I wasn’t going to stoop that low.”
Now a father of three, Chambers admits that, with his earning power as an athlete virtually hamstrung by the EuroMeetings bar on reinstated drug offenders, he needs the money from his book to fund him for at least another year. His hope is that gold in Turin might help to ease open a few doors towards some summer head-to-heads with a certain Usain Bolt.
Chambers’ indoor 60m times suggest the north Londoner might have been the closest man to the Lightning Bolt, had he been in the Olympic 100m final in Beijing last summer. At the very least, he will get the chance to catch up with his one-time sparring partner on the track at the World Championships in Berlin in August. The pair trained together in the winter of 2005-06 when Chambers went to Jamaica to prepare for his comeback season. That, was before the Lightning Bolt became a world-record-breaking phenomenon.
“I’ve run against Usain on the training track, so I know what I’m up against,” Chambers says. “That doesn’t pressure me. I’ve had to stand in the Royal Courts of Justice and be told I can’t go to the Olympic Games. That’s more pressure than standing on the start line with the fastest man in the world.
“With what I’ve had to cope with over the past few years, nine seconds of pressure and concentration is something I can deal with. I’m a tough little cookie. I just want to get on the big stage and compete with the best guys in the world.” After tackling the best in Europe in his particular Italian Job, that is.
Race Against Me by Dwain Chambers is published by Libros International, priced £18.99, on 9 March.
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