Athletics/Drugs: Dwain Chambers will today be officially suspended from athletics when the governing body UK Athletics receives notification that his positive test for a new designer anabolic steroid has been confirmed by a second test.
The Monaco-based International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) is due to send a letter to UK Athletics with notification that the B sample of the European 100 metres champion and record holder matched that of the positive A test for tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).
Nick Davies, a spokesman for the IAAF, confirmed that Chambers's B sample had been tested at the University of California laboratory in Los Angeles on Monday. He said the result had not been made public, but sources involved in the case confirmed the result was positive.
"No letter has been sent yet from the IAAF to UK Athletics," said Davies. "That will be tomorrow (Friday) morning at the latest. It is then for them to release the necessary statement regarding the drugs test of Dwain Chambers. It may be tomorrow or even later. I don't know their plans."
But, under the rules of UK Athletics, Chambers will automatically be suspended and all his national lottery funding stopped as soon as it receives the information from the IAAF.
Chambers's team of legal advisers, led by Rio Ferdinand's lawyer Graham Shear of Teacher Stern Selby, will then have 28 days to let the national governing body know whether they want to request an independent disciplinary hearing.
Responding to last night's leak, Shear said: "We don't know and we have not been notified of any results. I am more than a little mystified. This seems very speculative, premature and maybe unsafe. We have not been notified, not even a suggestion of intimation as to the outcome to the test. I'm extremely surprised by this development."
If the 25-year-old Londoner opts for a hearing, he will have the chance to state his case as to why he tested positive for the steroid during an out-of-competition test taken on August 1st while he was training in Saarbrucken, Germany.
If that hearing finds Chambers guilty, he will face a minimum ban of two years. That could be extended to life if officials of the IAAF conclude he was involved with others in a conspiracy to cheat.
Even if he escapes a life suspension, his career would effectively be over. Under the British Olympic Association guidelines he would, as a convicted steroid user, receive a life ban from the games.
Guardian Service
