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Stunning letter from Balco supplier Victor Conte reveals true extent of sprinter Dwain Chambers' drug use
Last updated at 19:56pm on 16.05.08Dwain Chambers will present a doping manual to Britain's drug testers today that may embarrass them as much as it helps their cause.
Chambers will give John Scott, Britain's anti-doping chief, at a meeting in UK Sport's London headquarters a devastating letter from Victor Conte, his US drug supplier, detailing what Chambers took, the amounts and the schedule of use employed to avoid detection by the testing system.
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Doping manual: Dwain Chambers
The most stunning indictment of the present system is contained in Conte's revelation that when Chambers was caught finally in Germany for one banned drug he was actually taking six more that analysis failed to detect.
Conte, who was imprisoned in California after his Balco laboratory was raided by federal authorities, became famous as the supplier of THG, a steroid known to athletes as 'the clear' which was designed to out-wit testers.
• Click here to read Conte's letter
It achieved that until a Jamaican coach, Trevor Graham, revealed it in a used syringe to the US Anti Doping Agency.
Chambers was among the first caught after USADA devised a test but what will stagger doping authorities is the cocktail of drugs Conte says Chambers was taking in his preparations for the 2003 world championships.
The others were a testosterone/epitestosterone cream, the blood-boosting drug EPO, human growth hormone, insulin, modafinil, a 'wakefulness agent' and liothryonine, a synthetic thyroid hormone. Conte helpfully lists the brand names and amounts used.
During the two years in which he took those drugs, Chambers was tested frequently, both in Britain and abroad, without any test proving positive.
Today's revelation reinforces the doubts about the testing regime raised when Marion Jones was shown to have been tested more than 160 times while she was taking drugs.
Conte tells Scott that the substances were used in 'three weeks on, one week off' cycles through winter when sprinters do the bulk of their strength training, usually on Monday, Wednesday and Friday in conjunction with intense weight-lifting sessions.
His advice, revealed in an interview with BBC Sport, is to conduct the majority of tests between October and December rather than in the competitive season, and to cut the missed-test allowance from three to one.
Chambers has kept in contact with Conte since he was suspended in 2003 for two years and still receives advice from him about legal nutritional advice from him. It was that link that persuaded the American to offer help to UK Sport's anti-drug programme, as he has already to USADA and the World Anti-Doping Agency.
'I have more information I would like to provide but I will leave that for another time,' Conte says in his letter to Scott. He has offered to travel to London to brief them personally.
Chambers, unsuccessful in his attempts to earn a living playing rugby league and American football, will return to the track this summer, initially for his club, Belgrave Harriers, but he hopes to compete for a place in the Olympic team at trials in mid-July.
That will depend on a successful High Court challenge to the British Olympic Association's bye-law banned any suspended drug-taker from Olympic selection for life.
Lawyers for shot putter Carl Myerscough have informed the BOA they will be mounting a challenge this summer and Chambers is considering doing the same.
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