Dwain Chambers today lost his High Court battle to be allowed to compete at next month's Beijing Olympics.

The disgraced sprinter, 30, failed to win an injunction to suspend temporarily his lifetime ban from the Games for using performance-enhancing drugs.

The decision was instantly hailed as a victory in the campaign to keep top-level athletics free of drugs.

Pursued by crowds of journalists and photographers as he left the court, Chambers refused to say whether he was going to retire. But he revealed he would not be appealing against the judge's decision.

The athlete, one of Britain's top sprinters and a World Championships silver medallist, was banned by the British Olympic Association from participating in all future Olympics after testing positive for designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone in 2003.

Having served a two-year suspension, Chambers argued that the lifetime ban was an unfair restraint on trade. But after listening to his case, Mr Justice Mackay refused to grant an injunction suspending the bylaw before the full hearing next March. He said: "Many people both inside and outside sport would see this bylaw as unlawful. It would take a much better case than the claimant has presented to persuade me to overturn the status quo at this stage and compel his selection for the Games."

British selectors will name the final squad for the Beijing Games by Sunday. The International Olympic Committee welcomed the judge's decision.

Communications director Giselle Davies said: "We believe in a zero-tolerance approach to athletes who take banned drugs."

During the hearing yesterday, the judge told Jonathan Crystal, representing Chambers: "The reality is that you are saying 'put him on the plane'." Mr Crystal, an expert in sports law, had told the judge that banning Chambers could deprive Britain of its best chance of winning a medal in the 100 metres.

He said the BOA bylaw was unfair, contrary to competition law and an unreasonable restraint on trade.

"He represents our best chance of a podium finish in the 100 metres in Beijing," Mr Crystal said.

Chambers had already qualified for the Olympics team after winning the 100 metres at trials in Birmingham last Saturday and setting his best time of the year.

David Pannick QC, representing the BOA, had told the judge that Chambers "cannot show that sportsmen and women are significantly restrained in their trade by the bylaw, which only concerns eligibility for an amateur event, which takes place once every four years and for which there is no prize money".

He added: "If the court were to make an order requiring the claimant to be selected, that would deprive another athlete of his place in the team, even though the legality of the rule may be upheld at a full trial."

Mr Pannick argued that Chambers, as a self-confessed drugs cheat, was not a good example for Britain's next sports generation and the court should not force the BOA to pick him.

BOA chairman Lord Moynihan welcomed the ruling. Speaking outside court, he said the association would continue to send a "powerful and important message" to athletes that drugs cheats would not have the honour of representing Britain.

On returning from his two-year ban, Chambers won gold in the 4x100m relay at the 2006 European championships. His team-mate Darren Campbell refused to celebrate after being stripped of the 2003 world gold medal after Chambers's drug disgrace.