Dwain Chambers: Do cheats prosper?

As many of you will know, Dwain Chambers has been selected to compete for Great Britain in the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Valencia, Spain next month. And quite rightly so, according to the ‘first-past-the-post’ selection criteria that UK Athletics (UKA) have adopted. Legally he has the right, based upon those selection criteria that everyone in the sport has to follow, to compete in Valencia. It is the only decision that UKA could have made.

The question is whether the selection criteria are correct, fair and proper. In my opinion, in this case it is not. I believe, and this may not be the opinion of Mobilis, given the amount of time drugs cheats have been among our sport it is hard to believe that this scenario has not been predicted and the consequences clarified. Listening to reports of Neils de Vos, the recently appointed Chief Executive of UKA, I can’t imagine that the present criteria would still be in place if he’d have had his way and had the time to have dealt with it.

The public are looking at all our governing bodies to ‘do the right thing’ both morally and professionally, but UKA have been unable to make a stand against what is clearly an inappropriate selection due to an ineffective selection protocol. In this day of political correctness-gone-mad, can we please have some common sense about this issue?

The problems that I have with this selection are:

• He is preventing a young and promising athlete from competing and gaining valuable experience at a world class event.


• He is compromising how our Olympic athletes, our Olympic movement and even our country are being portrayed.


• It comes over very strongly that we are condoning drugs cheats.

I can’t believe that he will ultimately be allowed to compete. If the threats of Euromeetings (an umbrella body representing most leading promoters) are anything to go by, they are looking to ostracise drugs cheats, and it would not be surprising if this offers further momentum to Neils de Vos’ position. In fact I can’t believe that the ‘powers-that-be’ will not have thought of another obstacle further down the road to prevent him from competing, but still keeping their legal noses clean. Let’s wait and see.