Athletice: Chambers could make GB relay team

At 19:21 GMT, Sunday, 15 February 2009

Chambers was in fine form at the indoor trials on Saturday New GB coach Charles van Commenee has reiterated Dwain Chambers can play an important role in the squad after his strong indoor trails performance. Chambers served a two-year ban for a failed drugs test in 2003 but has been shunned by several GB athletes since. Van Commenee has hinted the 30-year-old could be in the sprint relay team for August's World Championships in Berlin. "He's served his sentence. There's been a cloud over him but there's a new reality now," he said. "Lots of things are done in light of the 2012 Olympic Games, for which he is not eligible. But I will treat Dwain as any other athlete of that calibre. "I know there are restrictions, funding wise and competition wise, but we have to close that chapter. How we deal with it in the light of the relay will come out soon. We move on." Chambers qualified for the 60m at next month's European Indoor Championships in Turin by running 6.51 seconds at the trials in Sheffield, equalling the fastest time in the world this year. He will find out on 24 February whether he has also been included in the relay team, a decision which is entirely down to the coach. Chambers said recently he would stand down from the relay team if his potential team-mates were against his inclusion. After his failed drugs test, Chambers was stripped of all the medals he had won since mid-2002, after admitting that he had been doping from that date. He was also banned for life from the Olympics. That meant Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish and Christian Malcolm also had to hand back the gold medals they won in the 2002 European Championships sprint relay, when Chambers was in the team. The British team also had to hand back silver medals won in the 2003 World Championships for the same reason - and this is partly why Chambers has been criticised so heavily. Van Commenee added: "We all wish, including Dwain, that he hadn't done what he did but we have to close that chapter because it's been a dark cloud hanging over him too long."