Sprinter Dwain Chambers has hit back at those criticising his selection for Britain's indoor world championship team, saying he is being made to feel like a leper.
Chambers was named in the team for next month's event in Valencia on Tuesday after emphatically winning the British trials but UK Athletics said the selection committee was unanimous in its desire not to include him and did so only because they felt there was no alternative.
Chambers served a two-year ban after testing positive for the banned steroid THB in 2003 and, after an initial comeback was curtailed by a move to American football, returned to the sport last year.
UK Athletics wanted to ban him from the British trials because they said he had not undergone regular drug testing but the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) overruled them.
"I'm being made to feel like a leper," Chambers told the Sun newspaper on Wednesday.
"A terrible stigma has been attached to me but people need to know I am clean. Yes, I did something wrong. I did the crime -- but I've done my time and now I've moved on.
"Every morning I wake up knowing I have not fulfilled my potential, and that's all I'm trying to do now. I believe I have two more years ahead of me," said the 29-year-old.
"Other people are allowed to get on with their lives once they have served a punishment, so why can't I get on with mine?
"At the moment, I am doing everything on my own. I am training from a local park, without a coach. Imagine what times I could do if I was back on the tracks, with a proper trainer and support.
"I respect people have opinions about me and they are entitled to those. I'm not going to get into a slanging match with them.
"But they should remember I'm only doing what I'm legally entitled to do. If the law forbade me from running, I wouldn't be doing it."
Legal or not, Chambers' comeback was greeted with dismay by many former athletes, including Sebastian Coe, chairman of Britain's 2012 Olympic committee .
"I don't think you reach redemption by being selected for the next available championships," said Coe, a double Olympic 1,500 metres champion.
"You have to put a bit back in. I would have had more sympathy with the rehabilitation argument a few years ago but now there is no ambiguity about this.
"If we're not careful people will vote with their feet. Parents will not want kids going into a sport that they think is remotely ambivalent about the subject of doping."
Former 400 metres Olympic silver medallist Roger Black said: "He is now a shining example of 'give it a go, if you get caught, it doesn't matter, you can come back'.
"You know the score as an athlete. If you cross the line, you should walk away. If you risk it and you cheat, you shouldn't be back."
The organisers of this weekend's indoor grand prix meeting in Birmingham have announced that Chambers will not be invited.
"This is not a personal matter with regards to Dwain Chambers but a view taken as part of our responsibility towards protecting the image of the sport," said former hurdler John Ridgeon, now managing director of Fast Track.
However, not everyone was convinced that Chambers should be shunned, with many observers pointing out that shot putter Carl Myerscough, who served a two-year ban for taking steroids, was also named in the team for Valencia without a murmur of disapproval from the selectors.
Chambers says he felt like a leper | UK | Reuters
Note: I find this situation ridiculous. People in this country are so unforgiving and so petty about this sort of thing. The guy screwed up, got caught, admitted guilty, was sentenced, served his sentence in full and all the rest of it. Yet now that he is entitled to take up the sport once more and is doing well at it again, people are wanting more blood from him. Yeah he cheated, but FFS, he served his time, let him get on with his life, he's proving he can run as well without drugs and that he is now free from them, lets use it to this countries advantage and take the positives from it, instead of wanting to pour petrol on the guy and set fire to him.
Chambers says he felt like a leper
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