Dwain's No Longer a Pain!

It was good to see Dwain Chambers winning the AAA's national sprint title yesterday at the Alexander Stadium, Birmingham, and booking his place in the GB & NI team for the European Championships in the process. On current form Chambers is favourite to become European champion next month in Barcelona and, if he meets the challenge, will win his first major outdoor international title to add to the world indoors gold medal he won last March in Doha. Now, I cannot stress enough, I abhor drugs cheats in any sport and, if it was down to me, I'd ban the lot of them for life. Of course this presents its own problems as so many dope cases are grey rather than black and white but, nonetheless, if an athlete is banged up to rights then he or she should forego their trade after defrauding the public and obtaining earnings through deceit. So, why should I be pleased for Chambers? Lots of reasons, actually. First, under the current laws, he has served his time by completing a two year ban from all competition. You may not like this rule, but it is the rule. Second, British athletes caught cheating are deprived of a place at the Olympics or Commonwealth Games, a national rather than international ruling that Chambers will have to live with for the rest of his life when other cheats from other countries will be seen in Delhi in October and London in 2012. Third, the hypocrisy surrounding Chambers's case is contemptuous. Dwain hardly helped himself with some of his statements, and he was undoubtedly badly advised, but he was treated like a pariah compared to many other cheats. Lastly, I used to know Dwain quite well. Indeed, he was one of the athletes who trained me for my pretty disastrous attempt at the 60 metres in Birmingham in the then Norwich Union meeting at the National Indoor Arena eight years' ago. He and I used to sprint up the "Hill of Death" at Alexandra Palace in the mornings and he was always helpful and friendly. Is Dwain the cleverest man on the planet? No. Was he stupid beyond belief? Yes. Is he a bad person? No, he is not. There are very few bad people in this world. But there are plenty of good people who make bad mistakes. So yes, Dwain should have been banned for life as should everyone else, but we have given him a second chance and it was pleasing to see the positive reception he received from the crowd in Birmingham yesterday after proving that at 32 years of age he still has what it takes, and also underlining just what might have been if he had kept himself clean.