DRUGS IN SPORT:DWAIN CHAMBERS'S lawyer has launched a stinging attack on the British Olympic Association after their lifetime ban for drugs cheats was overturned in court.
Chambers, who was banned for two years in 2004 after testing positive for a banned steroid, was prevented from competing at the Beijing Olympics but will now be eligible for selection for the British team at the London 2012 Games, along with cyclist David Millar.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) backed the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) in declaring the lifetime ban “non-compliant” with the global anti-doping code – with the decision labelled “a hollow victory” for Wada by BOA chairman Lord Moynihan.
Chambers’s lawyer Siza Agha said they will take time to consider the Cas findings but attacked the BOA’s position as “blinkered”.
Agha said: “In my view as hosts for the 2012 Olympics, this delicate and emotive issue required international diplomacy, foresight and responsibility. What we have received has been a crude and defiant display fuelled by misguided statements such as ‘We have standards and the rest of the world doesn’t’.
“It has in my view been an exposure of colonial arrogance that even the most extreme and blinkered should have realised could only serve to marginalise British opinion on the international stage.
“In complete contrast Wada have in my view been the model of professionalism and dignity in the face of the most extreme provocation. Lessons should be learned by their example.”
Agha added: ”Having not been party to the Cas case, Dwain and I will now need to take time to privately digest and consider the reasoning behind the decision.”
Wada have added to the criticism, blasting the BOA for “the many hysterical and inaccurate public statements” from the organisation during the case. Moynihan has promised, however, that Chambers and Millar would not be treated differently to any other athlete.
Moynihan stated: “This will be seen as a hollow victory for Wada. We live in difficult days when Wada spends time and money reducing those countries which have taken a determined stance against drug cheats in sport, such as Canada, New Zealand and ourselves, to a two-year ban which as Sir Steve Redgrave has said is tantamount to almost saying it is acceptable.
“It is also wrong in our view that all 204 national Olympic committees around the world now have to hand over their selection policy towards drug cheats to Wada or face court action.”
The BOA have been ordered to pay the costs of the Cas panel, but Moynihan said the total was still less than the €123,000 they had budgeted for. The BOA president has infuriated Wada on a number of occasions since the start of the case last year, and the organisation’s president John Fahey, an Australian, responded in forthright manner.
Fahey said: “The decision totally rejects the BOA appeal and upholds the Wada foundation board’s declaration of non-compliance. The Wada decision was taken only after the full deliberation and consideration of independent legal advice and Wada regrets the many hysterical and inaccurate public statements from the BOA in the course of challenging the WADA decision.”
For Fahey, the fight against doping in sport had to be based on one set of rules across every country. Attention will now shift to Chambers and Millar, both of whom are likely to be selected for the Games.
UK Athletics, who had supported the lifetime ban, confirmed: “Athletes affected by the ruling are now eligible for the team, in both individual and relay events, and will be subject to the same selection criteria and process as every other British athlete.”
Millar is likely to be part of the Olympic cycling team in London but British Cycling refused to speculate on that possibility.
Moynihan insisted Chambers and Millar would both now have his full support but said he could do little if they were targeted by spectators during the Games.
