Chambers set to face Bolt in Ostrava
Controversial British sprinter Dwain Chambers will face world record
holder Usain Bolt over 100 metres at this month's Golden Spike event in
Ostrava, Czech Republic.
Chambers is now eligible for selection for the London 2012 Olympics
after the British Olympic Association's life-time ban for drugs cheats
was over-ruled and he will get a chance to test himself against the best
ahead of the Games when he goes head to head with Jamaica's Bolt.
In addition to Chambers, who served a two-year ban after testing
positive for a banned steroid in 2003, Olympic champion Bolt will take
on three other men who have gone under 10 seconds -- America's Darvis
Patton, Jamaica's Lerone Clarke and Zimbabwe's Ngonidzashe Makusha.
Alfons Juck, the Ostrava meeting manager, said: "I can confirm that
Dwain Chambers has been invited to the Golden Spike event.
"At the start of the year his agent and lawyer approached all the
meetings, including Ostrava. We just waited for the announcement, I
wanted to see how it would end with the CAS situation, with the BOA and
so on and then we published it.
"But it had nothing to do with the decision over whether Dwain would
run in Ostrava or not. We just waited because we thought, from a PR
point of view, it would be more wise to wait, then put it into the right
perspective." The 34-year-old Chambers has been absent from Europe's
leading meets for several years after promoters decided to ban drug
cheats.
The Ostrava meeting is the most prestigious event to have offered
Chambers a lane since his return to top-flight athletics in 2008 and his
inclusion could be the prelude to competing in the top-tier Diamond
League series.
His legal representative, Siza Agha, suggests there could be more
opportunities for the sprinter in the run-up to London 2012. AFP |