Tim Montgomery: 'I didn't give it a second thought'

The American sprinter is currently 18 months into an eight-year prison sentence for bank fraud and possession and distribution of heroin, having been banned from athletics for drug offences in 2005.

Montgomery's fall from grace since setting a new world record of 9.78 seconds in September 2002 has been spectacular, with his achievements since 2001 wiped from the record books and his days now spent in a Federal Prison Camp in Alabama.

In an interview with The Times today, Montgomery revealed it was his desire to beat fellow American Maurice Greene which led him to take performance-enhancing drugs, although he concedes the consequences of his actions were never considered.

"Maurice got in my head real bad," he told the newspaper. "I wanted everything that he had.

"I would give anything to be the world's fastest. I wouldn't let anything get in my way.

"Did I feel I was crossing the line when I was doping? No, not coming from the streets. It wasn't even a second thought.

"I'm not going to sugar-coat it, there wasn't even a second thought that I was cheating. It was all about getting one over the system and if I could, I would."

Montgomery revealed the relaxed nature of his drug use with former partner and fellow athlete Marion Jones, who was famously stripped of several Olympic titles after admitting to taking banned substances.

The 34-year-old revealed how he and Jones would keep their steroids in the fridge by their vegetables and syringes under a pile a clothes, but never felt they were crossing a line.

"We did discuss doping," he said. "But we just discussed the fact that everyone was doing it."

Time in prison has forced Montgomery to admit the error of his ways, however.

"If only I could have got this lesson earlier," he said. "All I had to do was wake up and train. I had the best job in the world and now I'm in prison clearing leaves.

"I destroyed myself."

Remarkably, Montgomery harbours hopes of making a comeback at the London Olympics, having
maintained his fitness while behind bars.

His involvement at the 2012 Games would be subject to a legal appeal against the rest of his sentence, which runs to 2016, but he believes he still has the pace to compete.

Montgomery claims he can run the 100m in 10.3secs in tennis shoes and said: "Give me a pair of spikes and three months' proper training and I could probably get down to 10 flat."