Dwain Chambers confident of challenging Usain Bolt
It takes a brave man to predict he can challenge triple world record-holder Usain Bolt but Dwain Chambers is feeling pretty emboldened by his early-season form.
By Simon Hart
Last Updated: 9:54PM GMT 01 Feb 2009
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?
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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.