SPRINTER Dwain Chambers is encouraged by comments from new UK Athletics head coach Charles van Commenee suggesting he would be welcomed back into the Great Britain team.
Chambers has a lifetime Olympic ban having tested positive for the banned steroid THG in 2003, and lost an appeal against the decision in July this year. But Van Commenee is happy for him to represent GB in non-Olympic events like World Championships
, and Chambers is pleased to feel included.
"I was very pleased to hear that from Charles – it was a surprise because I never expected such a turnaround at this stage of the season," Chambers said. "I was expecting more turmoil and constant questions about my past so to hear Charles say that is very warming.
"As I said it has been dragged through the mud so long and so often that everyone is tired of it. I think Charles has been a breath of fresh air in the sense that nobody wants to keep talking about the same old subject over and over again.
"Now Charles has said that it shows that he and UK Athletics want to move forward and hopefully with that in mind we can look to a more positive outcome next year.
"There is a window of opportunity available now and I'm going to jump right through it.
"It has been frustrating because I've been back since 2006 and I was welcomed back and I even competed in British grands prix upon my return in 2006.
"But the tables turned in 2008 and I'm pretty much serving my sentence all over again and to me that didn't make any sense."
Chambers also confirmed that he has no immediate plans to appeal against the Olympic ban which prevented him from taking part at the Games in Beijing this year.
The 30-year-old challenged for a place in the British Olympic team for Beijing in 2008, winning the 100m at the GB trials, but the High Court refused his request for an injunction against his Olympic ban.
"I am just going to leave that alone – at the end of the day I made a mistake and I have to live with it for the rest of my year," he said.
"I think dragging the sport back through another court case would be wrong and puts a lot of pressure on everybody so for now I am just going to leave it alone and for the next three years.
"It was just a shame I wasn't able to go to Beijing but that's in the past now."
The full article contains 435 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
