Chambers hits out at treatment

Dwain Chambers claims he has been made to feel "like a leper" by the continual references to his drugs ban.

The sprinter served a suspension between 2002 and 2004 after admitting he took the banned substance THG but he returned to athletics earlier this year and won the 60 metres at the national indoor championships in Sheffield.

That victory guaranteed him a place in the Great Britain team for the World Indoor Championships in Valencia, but the UK Athletics selectors revealed they would have preferred to leave him out so a younger sprinter could gain experience at the championships.

Chambers said: "I'm being made to feel like a leper. A terrible stigma has been attached to me but people need to know I am clean. Yes, I did something wrong. I did the crime - but I've done my time and now I've moved on.

"Other people are allowed to get on with their lives once they have served a punishment, so why can't I get on with mine?

"I'm only doing what I'm legally entitled to do. If the law forbade me from running, I wouldn't be doing it."

UK Athletics could only block Chambers from competing in Valencia if they found 'exceptional circumstances', but the sprinter had threatened to launch a legal challenge if he was not chosen and he was duly named in the squad.

However, a UKA statement said: "Taking him to the World Indoors deprives young, upwardly mobile committed athletes of this key development opportunity."

"Unfortunately, the committee felt that the selection criteria pertaining to the winner of the trials, coupled with the manner of Dwain's performance, left them no room to take any other decision."

British Olympic Association rules state that athletes that have served a previous drugs ban cannot be selected for the Great Britain Olympic team, so Chambers will not be allowed to compete at the Games in Beijing later this year.

However, his lawyer Nick Collins, has suggested that rule could be challenged in the courts.

Collins said: "We will have that conversation at some stage, but it's been a case of 'let's get him in the team and take it from there'."

But Chambers may find it difficult to find races this years because most European event promoters have decided to ban drugs cheats from their meetings.

Chambers has already been told he will not be invited to the Indoor Grand Prix meeting in Birmingham on Saturday.

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