Dwain Chambers, whose sprinting career remains blighted by his two-year doping ban in 2003, has backed the introduction of mandatory blood tests at the forthcoming World Championships and called for more frequent drug tests in and out of competition to ensure a level playing field.
The championships, which open in Daegu on Friday, have been overshadowed by the recent positive drug tests recorded by Jamaican Steve Mullings, the third fastest man in the world this year, and the American Mike Rodgers, who is equal fourth in the world rankings.

Mullings was due to face a disciplinary hearing in Jamaica on Monday after testing positive for Furosemide, a diuretic that can be used as a masking agent, while Rodgers has been provisionally suspended for failing a drug test for the stimulant methylhexaneamine.

Both men have protested their innocence, as Chambers did after he was revealed to have tested positive for the designer steroid THG shortly after the 2003 World Championships in Paris.

Since his return to competition the Londoner has openly confessed his guilt and delivered lectures to students on the perils of taking performance-enhancing drugs.

“For my part I would welcome more frequent and rigorous testing in championships and off season and after I learnt my lesson I hoped that a lot more athletes would,” Chambers said on Monday from the Great Britain team’s training camp in Ulsan, South Korea.

“I can only concentrate on myself and do the best I can as a clean athlete and remain positive and go for the opportunities that are available.”

Asked whether he supported the decision of the International Association of Athletics Federations to take blood samples from every athlete competing in Daegu, Chambers said: “Yes, I welcome that. I think it’s a good introduction to major championships. It levels the playing field out and it is best overall for all athletes.”

Chambers has paid a heavy price for his own transgression, having been ostracised from the world’s major meets and banned for life by competing for Britain at the Olympic Games.

With London 2012 off limits, the World Championships are the biggest stage available to him and, at 33, the event in Daegu could be his last opportunity to compete outdoors at a global level.

The struggles of Usain Bolt this season have left the 100 metres looking far more open than it was two years ago when the triple Olympic champion broke his own world record in Berlin. But Chambers, who had the perfect view of Bolt’s history-making performance as he took sixth place in the final, has no doubt that Bolt remains the man to beat.

“Usain has shown this season that he is a human being,” he said. “This guy has been dominant in ways that were unmanageable to us as athletes, but the fact he has not been on top form does not put any doubts in my mind. He’s still the No 1 contender.”

Meanwhile, Yamile Aldama, the Cuban-born triple jumper who switched her allegiance to Sudan before switching again to Britain believes she has every right to compete for the country that has been her home for the last 10 years.

The 39 year-old has been accused of being another “plastic Brit”, following in the footsteps American-born Tiffany Porter and Shana Cox and Anguillan Shara Proctor in switching to Britain just in time for the London Olympics.

But Aldama, who will make her British debut in Daegu, says she feels proud to compete for Britain, having lived in north London for a decade and having trained with British coach Frank Attoh.

“England is where I live, my kids are British and I think I have the right to compete for GB,” she said.

“I didn’t come to this country to do bad things. All I bring is good things — compete for my club, teach kids at my club, support my team-mates. All I am doing is giving, so I think it is my time to take something.”

Aldama, who finished fourth for Cuba at the 2000 Olympics, arrived in Britain in 2001 to marry a Scot. She had hoped to compete for Britain at the 2004 Athens Games but switched allegiance to Sudan after the Home Office refused to rush through a British passport. She continued to compete for Sudan until 2010 but became eligible for Britain just days before the GB team for Daegu was selected.

“It is not for me to judge on the nationality debate,” she said. “Everyone has different opinions. I think of course where you are born is very important for your family and culture. But if you move to a place where you are based there and do everything there, then it is right for you to compete for that country.”

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk