From The Sunday Times February 14, 2010
Nick Pitt
DWAIN CHAMBERS won the UK indoor championships at 60m in Sheffield yesterday with an emphatic victory in 6.50sec, the fastest time in the world this year.
As a result, and against the desires of the powers that be in UK athletics, Chambers has gained selection for the world championships in Doha next month, and will represent his country as one of the favourites for the gold medal.
For more than two years, Chambers, who was banned from the sport in 2003 for taking an illegal and performance-enhancing drug, has been trying to muscle his way back to winning ways and widespread respect. He has certainly achieved the former, and judging by the acclaim he received from the crowd at the English Institute of Sport, he is well on the way to his second objective.
In yesterday’s final, Chambers powered his way to the front of the field and dominated for the few seconds it took to reach the line. Harry Aikines Aryeetey, a 21-year-old prospect, came second with a personal best of 6.55, with Craig Pickering, the 2007 champion, third. “I’m just happy that I’m realising my potential and things are moving in the right direction,” said the Londoner.
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Mark Lewis-Francis, who is making a comeback of his own, was a disappointing fourth. He said that nerves got to him, since it is three years since he has competed at championship level, and, after a career-threatening Achilles injury, almost that long since he has been able to compete at all.
In the absence of Jessica Ennis, the local girl and world heptathlon champion, who has a ligament injury in her right foot but is expected to be fit for the world championships, the public spotlight naturally illuminated Chambers, and he did not disappoint.
With scarcely a mention in the 48-page programme in Sheffield, Chambers remains a man unwanted by many in the athletics world. Still banned by the British Olympic Association, he will not be able to compete in the 2012 Olympics or in the Commonwealth Games. On the circuit, most promoters spurn him. Lord Coe has said he holds his nose every time Chambers runs.
Malodorous or not, Chambers looks just as he always did: an aggressive, smouldering presence, tattoos on muscle and fearsome stares, especially as he psyches himself before the start. But these days, when he speaks he is all reason and contrition, accepting his lot without bitterness.
“I realise now what I almost lost,” Chambers said after his victory. “I want to put all the controversy behind me. I know I did a lot of things that were wrong, but now I just want to run fast and to enjoy my sport again. Today, I had to make the team, and to do that I had to run fast. There are good guys behind me. Now I’m going to keep my head down and just run to win.”
Confined to minor meetings and championships from which he is not banned, Chambers races on in his private purgatory. He will find it hard to get the invitations he needs to keep sharp for the world championships, but he makes no complaint.
“I’m relaxed about it,” he said, smiling in his personable manner.
“I’ll just do the best I can. I have a young family these days and it’s good to spend time with them. This year, I have no project.” That was a reference to his “Project Bolt”, a misguided commitment to dethrone Usain Bolt last year. Chambers managed to get into the same race as Bolt, the final of the 100m in the outdoor world championships in Berlin last August, but all he saw during the race was Bolt’s vapour trail. Chambers looked up at about halfway. “I remember thinking, ‘He’s gone’,” Chambers recalled. “I lost my concentration and tied up.” The mental damage for Chambers was the certain realisation that he had found a level at which he could not compete. The physical damage was a torn calf, which took three months to heal.
Indoors at 60m is a lower level, even at the world championships and Bolt, in common with many of the best 100m men, does not bother with indoor events, or even with the 60m. Perhaps the shortest sprint does not suit a man who runs more like a giraffe than a cheetah. In any case, his absence means that Chambers, the pariah of official British athletics, may cause the further embarrassment of another gold medal.
In the women’s 60m yesterday, Joice Maduaka won her sixth British title at the distance in 7.29sec, storming through to overtake Bernice Wilson, who had led easily at half distance. Elsewhere, Chris Tomlinson missed out on a seventh long jump title as Greg Rutherford leaped a season’s best of 7.94m, with Tomlinson registering 7.75m.
