Chambers challenge to lefetime ban will hurt athletics, says Lord Coe

Chambers is likely to test a British Olympic Association bylaw which bans drug cheats from competing at the Games if he wins the 100 metres at the July's national trials.

The 30-year-old served a two-year suspension after he tested positive for the anabolic steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in August 2003, and after brief foray into rugby league, he has committed himself again to full-time athletics with the aim to compete in Beijing this summer.

But Coe, chair of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations, insisted that if Chambers decided to pursue such a path, it would only further tarnish the reputation of the sport.

"No-one has announced a legal challenge yet but I am not sure I see a lot of principle in his stance - it is one which can only do further damage to the sport," Coe said.

"National Olympic committees and international federations must have the autonomy to govern their own sport in their best interests and that includes doing whatever they think they have to do keep it clean.

"They must be able to face down the lawyers and be able to govern their sport and at the centre of that is the 99% of athletes who want fair competition.

"We do need to understand the motivation behind these people and remember Dwain had a good coaching structure in this country and was running world-class times.

"He then goes off to charlatan coaches and sleazy chemists in the United States and runs a whole stack slower so I think there is a good lesson to be learnt there.

"But I really I think these are not mutually exclusive. You can be very tough and say 'actually we were rather you weren't in our sport given what you've done but at the same time do understand what you have done and the motivations'.

"We cannot underestimate the damage that is being done and we need to move away from it and the way that can be done is by not letting these people take part."

Chambers met with British anti-doping chief John Scott on Friday, where he gave a chapter-and-verse account of his 2003 drugs regime.

The meeting took place at the headquarters of UK Sport, the agency which funds elite sport in this country and currently runs Britain's anti-doping programme.

When asked whether he had become more sympathetic to Chambers' plight, Coe remained unmoved on the issue.

"No I'm not. And where I have gone in the sport and among members of the public I have not sensed that," Coe told BBC Radio Five Live's Sportsweek programme.

"What I do sense is that the sport is fragile both domestically and internationally.

"What I do recognise is someone who is trying desperately to get back into a sport that he has done massive damage to.

"This is only a stance that is going to cause more unnecessary and further damage in the lead up to Beijing.

"I am delighted that Dwain made himself to UK Sport and that has to be a good thing.

"But if you're asking me whether that leads to redemption then it may well do - but not in our sport which has already suffered a horrendous period in the last few years."