Chambers' victory casts a long shadow

She didn't mention Dwain Chambers but then there were hundreds of athletes in Birmingham's Alexander Stadium who felt there were very good reasons to talk about anything but him.

Like, say, Phillips Idowu once again stamping himself as the "Superman" to beat for Olympic gold in the triple jump. Or a teenager, Perri Shakes-Drayton, hurdling her way into the spotlight like some budding Sally Gunnell. Or a forgotten long jumper like Greg Rutherford leaping his way to Beijing as a tribute to his grandad who's dying of cancer.

Ohuruogu had seen this sort of total eclipse of excellence before, what with her own triumph in the Osaka World Championships last year having been totally obscured by the fall-out from her missed drugs tests.

Here, she'd just finished runner-up in the 200m in 22.99 seconds, looking as if she could be flying over her specialist one-lap distance come Beijing. Yet neither her own burgeoning gold medal prospects nor a series of splendid victories, from Marilyn Okoro's in the 800m to Tom Parsons in the high jump - all of which Ohuruogu's fellow Beijing contender Kelly Sotherton hailed as " worldclass" - were ever going to take precedence over the conjecture surrounding Chambers and his day in court this Wednesday.

"I think there've been so many great performances this weekend which have been overlooked , it's very disappointing," said Ohuruogu. "Everyone's tried so hard for Olympic qualification and I think we've really put on a good show here.

"Look at Perri, her win in the one-lap hurdles was a bit like my breakthrough in the 2004 trials and she's taking good scalps at only 19. No-one seems to care very much, though."

She had a point. Even Idowu couldn't outshine Chambers, not even after recording the two best marks in the world this summer, 17.58m and 17.57m, and making them seem so preposterously simple that we ended up being swayed by his confidence that a world record in the Beijing send-off, the Aviva London Grand Prix, at Crystal Palace in a fortnight, even wasn't beyond him.

"I feel like Superman. I don't think anyone can stop me. I'm bullet-proof," he boomed.

Only Idowu's effort still didn't feel like the weekend's true tour de force. Let's get it straight; many won't like the idea but Chambers's run didn't hog the limelight just because of his impending High Court case as he fights his Olympic drugs ban. No, it dominated these championships because it was a remarkable run.

A supposed pariah with no coach, no financial backing and few opportunities to race anywhere comes out on a cool afternoon absolutely not designed for sprinters and runs 10 seconds dead, the fastest time by a Briton for seven years?

Fantastic, really - but undeniably sad and poignant too as it could only ever end up with Chambers having to field that pointed question about whether this run had made him think 'why the hell did I ever bother with drugs?'.

"Well, you have to make mistakes in order to learn from them and I've learned my lesson," was Chambers' studied response, which he'll probably have to trot out for ever more. "I'm having fun doing it this way."

Well, one man's fun is another man's misery. In this case, should Mr Justice Mackay grant the injunction to temporarily overturn the BOA's lifetime Olympic drugs ban, Tyrone Edgar, who's been a generous supporter of Chambers until now, will find it hardest to bear.

Fourth in the trial, he's the favourite to miss out if Chambers goes and his comments told of a man utterly fed up about the whole circus. "It's an emotional time for me," conceded London's European Cup 100m winner. "I did hear there was a mixed reaction to Chambers with cheers and boos and I tried to block them out. It is really weird because the situation has taken over the sport. Every time you open a paper, it is not about athletics."

It would be impossible not to feel sympathy for Edgar, who reckoned he was suffering from a hamstring niggle, should he miss out. Yet like everyone else here yesterday, he was just reduced to helpless guesswork about how Wednesday's verdict might go. In the meantime, Chambers insisted he'd sleep soundly.

I'd wager that Ed Warner won't have such worry-free slumber. The UK Athletics chairman, who was asked to present the 100m winner with his medal on Saturday - a piece of planning so absurd that it belonged in the 'you could not make it up' category - faces something even more painful in Beijing.

For while before the weekend, it at least looked a safe bet that should Chambers win his fight to get to Beijing, he wouldn't be in with a chance of a gong once he got there, the landscape changed appreciably on Saturday. For if he can run 10 seconds in such discouraging conditions, how far might he dip below that barrier on a sultry evening in Beijing?

Also, while uncertainty remains about the fitness of two premier contenders, Tyson Gay and Asafa Powell, and while world record holder Usain Bolt hasn't even committed to run the event yet, Chambers just gets smoother, quicker and more determined with every race.

His prospects of injecting British athletics with the ultimate embarrassment may just be improving by the day.