Chambers out in the cold again

Dwain Chambers cut a lonely figure at Lee

Valley Athletics Centre yesterday as he faced up

to his status as the outcast of British athletics.

While his track rivals prepared for tonight's

Norwich Union Indoor Grand Prix in

Birmingham, Chambers trained alone on a

chilly afternoon in north London.

Isolation Chambers: the disgraced sprinter trains yesterday at a deserted Lee Valley

The Briton, banned for two years after a

positive drugs test in 2003, has qualified for

next month's World Indoor Championships in Valencia but has been told he is

not welcome at any of the 51

meetings run by major events

organisers Euromeetings.

UK Athletics have also made

their feelings clear, as they have

privateuseof LeeValleybetween

9am and 1pm — before the

complex is open to the public —

and have not invited Chambers.

The disgraced sprinter arrived

by taxi shortly after 2pm and

paid the £3.90 admission.Hethen

spent 90 minutes on the track,

during which he was forced to

move to the other side so white

lines could be repainted.

Olympic champion Carolina Kluft

yesterday insisted that she

would be spat at in her native

Sweden if she found herself in

the same position as Chambers.

'If someone put something in my

drink and I was tested positive,

even if I insisted I was innocent,

people would think of me as a

cheat. They would probably spit

at me on the street. It is not

acceptable to cheat,' said Kluft.

'That is a good mentality but

sometimes it makes me scared. I

keep my bottle close to me. My

life is dependent on no one

doing anything to me.'

Kluft, the Olympic heptathlon

champion, is taking part in

Birmingham where she will face

Britain's Kelly Sotherton in a

three-event competition.

Sotherton added that she felt UK

Athletics did not make a strong

enough stand against drugs

cheats in 2006 when Chambers

made his first comeback.

Sotherton said: 'It is unfortunate

that it has happened now and

not two years ago but I am all for

cleaning up the sport. We only

have a two-year ban, I would

always go for life.'

Former Olympic champion

Linford Christie insisted

Chambers' selection for Valencia

would not be an issue if the

other sprinters were good

enough to keep him out.

He said: 'Shame on the athletes

who allow him to come back in

the side after two years.'