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Dwain Chambers has caused massive controversy on his comeback to Athletics. In many ways even more controversy than when he was banned 5 years ago for taking the banned drug THG.

At the time of his ban he said he had “unwittingly” taken the drug, and received sympathy from many of his peers and big names associated to the sport. As such he was more or less welcomed back when his ban ended.

However, since then he has admitted he took drugs knowingly and has compounded the issue by adding that “you have to take drugs to win”. Now just about everybody has withdrawn their support for him. The problem now is that he comfortably won the 60m indoor trials at the weekend and has now been selected to represent GB, amongst huge protest from just about everybody.

In fairness to the selectors they have no choice in the matter unless they want to risk legal action of some sort. They have simply followed their own rules. The problem is clear. The rules are wrong.

If anybody takes drugs, they should received a life time ban. Full and final. There can be no argument that it “accidental” or “unwitting”. These athletes are surrounded by coaches and medical staff who know what is and is not legal. There is no grey area as far as I can see.

The problem as I see it is that some of these drugs enable muscles to be built up. Once this has happened does the extra bulk disappear after 2 years or are they able to keep it by working out and therefore always have that extra advantage. Not only that, they have brought their sport into disrepute and denied somebody the chance of standing on a podium and receiving the credit they deserve. This is only partially rewarded when medals are awarded retrospectively.
Chambers should do the decent thing and withdraw, and allow one of the honest hard working athletes to take his place. He won’t do that though, as he seems thick skinned enough to soak up the criticism and determined to milk the sport he has damaged for as much money as he can before he has to retire.

After the near misses of the F1 World Championship and the Rugby World Cup, finally we have had a weekend to be proud of.  I’m not just talking about Portsmouth’s demolition of Newcastle this weekend (incidentally a result, which puts them in the Champions League spot), but the wins of Justin Rose, Paula Radcliffe and Joe Calzaghe.

Joe Calzaghe was the first to win, defending his Super Middle Weight title successfully against the Dane Mikel Kessler.  This fight was not a full gone conclusion and Calzaghe was hit with some good shots and rocked a couple of times, but ultimately his guts, determination, stamina and ability to adapt got him through.  He is now eyeing up a step up to light heavy weight after defending his title an amazing 21 times. 

Then came Paula Radcliffe, who won a close run London Martathon on Sunday.  The win itself is remarkable enough and something to be proud of, but considering she gave birth to her daughter Isla just 10 months ago, it is made even more remarkable. 

And then Sunday afternoon up stepped Justin Rose in the Volvo Masters, knowing that a win would also give him the European Order of Merit Title.  He seemed to be coasting 4 shots clear until the 11th, where he made a double bogey, and then went on to drop 2 more shots in the next 3 holes.  This was compounded when Graeme McDowell produced an Albatross 2 at the 17th to show that anyone of 5 could potentially win.  However, it was the 18th hole at Valerama, which once again gave us the drama, with the top 3 (Rose, Dyson and Kjeldson) all taking bogeys, and going into a 3-way play off.  With Padraig Harrington finishing 2 shots down in 4th, it meant that Rose was assured the Order of Merit title and this seemed to relax him enough to go on and win the play off with a 12 foot putt.

The timing for all three couldn’t be better in terms of spot lighting their sports with the Sports Personality of the Year Award coming up in December.  All should be in contention along with Lewis Hamilton, and of course Jonny Wilkinson. Let’s hope it does go to one of the “smaller” sports and for somebody who actually won something rather than just came close.  Britain needs to celebrate winners rather than the “nearly men”.

So yet another in a long long line of doing scandals has rocked the Tour de France.  Alexandre Vinokourov has tested positive for an illegal blood transfusion after winning Saturday’s time trial.  No real surprise there to be honest looking at the way he finished.

The massive question is why?  Presumably they take drugs to improve their performance and win.  Yet if they win they will undergo a drugs test and not only be stripped of their victory, but be banned and bring the sport they presumably love into disrepute.

It seems impossible to stop these athletes cheating to gain that extra little advantage they might need, and the sport just seems to be spend a fortune on testing and monitoring.  So here’s a radical thought.

Why not remove all drugs testing from the sport, with the exception of the Olympics.  Let these guys pump their bodies full of whatever they want to, with no regard for the long term effects to their own bodies or to the sport itself.  Save all the money time and effort spent on trying to keep the spprt clean as this clearly doesn’t work - they are happy to win by any means fair or foul and so clearly have little or no integrity.  Personally it would be a hollow victory for me if I knew I had cheated to win but it obviously means nothing to these guys. 

I don’t buy the excuse that has been given to me that they all do it  and so need to in order to compete, or that the team doctors just give the cyclists stuff and they don’t know what it is half the time.  I’m certain that I would want to know what was being pumped into my body, and you can’t tell me that Vinokourov had no idea that he was being given a blood transfusion!

The entire sport is under a permanent cloud of suspicion anyway so lets just make it a battle of the synthetic athlete and be done with it.  It is practically that now anyway, and could become a unique experiment on what the human body is capable of when abused to the maximum. 

I have to say I have mixed feelings regarding the appointment of Sir Clive Woodward as Director of Elite Athletes for the 2012 Olympics.  No doubt he worked wonders with England World Cup rugby squad but since then he seems to have had a bad fall from grace , having seemingly alienated the RFU and been overlooked for the top job there.  In addition there was his baffling move to Southampton where he has shown an inability to change sport and maintain respect.  Not so long ago there were reports of him threatening to sue SFC because he didn’t have the respect of the players in the dressing room - this from a guy who has one of his best qualities listed as “motivational”.  Strange way of motivating people in my book.  The brief he has been given is enormous - he is supposed to get to grips with the coaching methods and technique and technique for 35 sports.  Being able to understand what is required is only part of the issue as any sports player will know, and athletes tend to respect people who have done it rather than talked about it.  Team GB may not have the overpaid egotistic character of many footballers, but will still need careful handling.  I just hope Sir Clive listens to the people around him, and takes advice from the experts in each sport, rather than try and apply text book teaching across the board.  If he does I fear he, and Team GB are heading for disaster

Fraser

www.lookupsport.com

The Darren Campbell drugs row rumbles on, and I have to admit to a change of opinion following his interview this morning on BBC News.  When I first heard the story I thought it was a positive stand to make, despite the fact that it could be seen as hypocritical that Linford Christie is his coach.  However, the question of motivation for running in the first place was raised in another blog by sporting soul. I think the answer may have been revealed in his interview this morning on BBC News.  When asked twice about the reasons for opting out of the lap of honour and then later when asked if he had any regrets about opting out his answer was largely the same.  He is upset at being stripped of 2 other Euroepan Medals due to Chambers testing positive.  This leads me to believe that although he is unhappy about drugs in his sport, he is not unhappy enough to turn down the chance of a medal.  If he was truely against drugs and wanted to make a point, he could have refused to run on the same team as Chambers and let the selectors decide.  I suspect the prospect of glory however, was far too enticing!

Fraser

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