Dame Kelly condemns Chambers’ return

Yesterday's news that the disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers is to be included in the British team for the upcoming World Indoor Championships in Valencia, despite his history as a drug cheat, has split the world of athletics. Dame Kelly Holmes, heroine of the 2004 Olympic Games, said immediately that she did not believe Chambers should be running. "This was an athlete who went to America, knowingly took a drug that was undetectable at the time, got caught, admitted he'd taken drugs, then went on to say that you can't win anything without taking drugs. I don't think it puts us in a good light as a country allowing a cheat, who has admitted he's a cheat, to represent us."

It then turned out that the governing body of British athletics - UK Athletics - had only grudgingly accepted that Chambers, who won the 60m sprint at last weekend's trials, should run again for his country. None of the six members of the selection panel had wanted him to run, but had picked the 29-year-old former European champion after he exploited a controversial clause in UK Athletics rules.

"The committee was unanimous in its desire not to select Dwain," the UKA said. "Taking him to the world indoors deprives young, upwardly mobile, committed athletes of this key development opportunity."

It is not the first time Chambers has been rebuffed by his peers since he was banned for two years in 2004 for failing a drugs test. In his 2006 comeback, when he helped Britain’s 4 x 100m relay team to a gold medal at the European championships, he was snubbed by teammate Darren Campbell, who declined to join him on a lap of honour.

Chambers said last night that he was "being made to feel like a leper". He added: "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 moved on." The sprinter now hopes to launch a legal bid to overturn a lifetime ban from the Olympics in time to run in Beijing this summer - something sure to bring further condemnation from Kelly Holmes and co.