Chambers begins bid to overturn ban

Athlete Dwain Chambers begins a race against time today to try to clear the way for him to compete at next month’s Olympic Games in Beijing.

He is making an application to a High Court judge to lift a lifetime ban on competing in Olympic events.

Chambers is challenging a British Olympic Association (BOA) bylaw which bans those who have used performance-enhancing drugs from the British team unless there are mitigating circumstances.

The 30-year-old knows that having served a two-year suspension for using the designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), there is no chance in pursuing the mitigating circumstances route through the BOA.

Instead he is going directly to the High Court where his application will be heard today by Mr Justice Mackay.

He will be represented by Jonathan Crystal, a specialist sports barrister, who will try to convince the judge that the BOA regulation is unfair.