|
Dwain
Anthony Chambers (born 5 April 1978) is an
English sprinter of Afro-Caribbean descent. His
primary event is the 100 metres sprint but he
also regularly runs in the 60 metres, 200 metres
and 4x100 metres relay. Chambers has won medals
on the international stage numerous times and is
one of the fastest European sprinters in the
history of recorded athletics. His personal best
of 9.97 seconds in the 100 m is the second
fastest time by a British sprinter. He also
holds the European 4x100 m relay record with
37.73 s. In 1997, Chambers set the junior world
record for the 100 m at 10.06 s. It has since
been surpassed.
Chambers' first appearance at the Olympics was
at the Sydney 2000 Games where he turned in the
best 100 m performance by a European at the
event. By 2001, he had become the top British
sprinter, breaking the 10 second barrier twice
at the Edmonton World Championships. However, in
October 2003, he tested positive for the banned
steroid THG in a drugs check, leading to the
BALCO scandal. Chambers received a two-year
athletics ban, and a lifetime Olympic ban. He
had all of his racing accomplishments since 2002
annulled, wiping away his European record.
Chambers returned to the track and field circuit
in June 2006, and won gold with his teammates in
the 4x100 m at the 2006 European Championships
but a feud with Darren Campbell tainted the
victory. Disillusioned with athletics, Chambers
joined the Hamburg Sea Devils of the NFL Europa
league in early 2007. After the league folded,
Chambers returned to sprinting, winning a silver
medal in the 60 m at the 2008 IAAF World Indoor
Championships, and filed unsuccessful appeals of
his Olympic ban. He briefly looked to rugby
league as an alternative to the hostility he
faced from fans and peers in athletics, but his
trial with the Castleford Tigers was
unsuccessful. He has since returned to
sprinting, and on 8 August 2008, signed a deal
with Libros International to write an
autobiography.
Dwain Chambers official
web site click here In January
2002 the athlete Dwain Chambers made a serious
error of judgement when he succumbed to peer
pressure and temptation and took a performance
enhancing substance. The inevitable bust, when
it happened, came almost as a relief.
Nevertheless it would turn his life upside down.
Chambers came clean, held up his hands and
unburdened himself of the guilt he’d been
carrying for so long. His income fell from six
figures per annum to nil and he had to repay 18
months of athletics prize money when he freely
admitted the timescale of his abuse.
A two-year competition ban was imposed and a
lifetime ban from the Olympics. He fought the
two-year ban as the drug he took was not
actually on a ‘banned list’ at the time of his
offence. Despite the experts advising him
otherwise he lost the case, needing to sell his
house in order to pay the costs.
He then made the decision to rebuild his
athletics career and his life and decided to
fight the British Olympic Association attempting
to overturn his lifetime Olympic ban. Some would
say it was yet another error of bad judgement
taking on ‘The Establishment’.
For five years Dwain Chambers has been abused
and vilified by the BOA, the media and his
fellow athletes past and present, he has been
called a cheating bastard in a radio interview
and a prominent Lord has used the F word when
referring to him. Lord Sebastian Coe, Lord Colin
Moynihan, Daley Thompson, Steve Cram, Steve
Redgrave and Dame Kelly Holmes are just a few of
the high profile names who have ensured a tirade
of negative publicity during and leading up to
one most high profile hearings in British
sporting history.
Once again Dwain Chambers placed his faith in
British justice. Two of his legal acquaintances
Jonathan Crystal and Nick Collins agreed to work
for free, such was their belief in their
client’s right to run. The BOA, by their own
admissions were not particularly well off,
nevertheless they wheeled in David Pannick QC,
arguably Britain's pre-eminent brief on sporting
matters, whose hourly rate of up to £1,500 puts
him at the very top of the pile of legal
earners. The Lawyer magazine estimates he
commands an annual income in excess of £2m.
Chambers lost his case. He sat and watched the
Beijing Olympics at home.
Dwain Chambers has kept a diary for five years,
now it’s his turn to talk. His treatment by
certain individuals, who are far from perfect
themselves, and in particular by the BOA have
sickened him to the core. The lies and double
standards are evident in RACE AGAINST ME as
Chambers pours his heart out and exposes the
real cheats in the world of athletics.
RACE AGAINST ME is a book that will shake UK and
world athletics to the core written by a man who
tells it how it is.
Limited
Edition signed copies of Dwain Chambers
Autobiography available on
http://www.sjdent.com/news-details.php?id=290
http://www.librosinternational.com |
