(Reuters) – Sprinter Dwain Chambers has been left out of Britain’s team for the individual 100 metres at the European championships in Helsinki which start tomorrow.
The British champion, who was given a two-year doping ban in 2003 for taking the designer steroid THG, said at the weekend he hoped to run in Finland in order to try and achieve the Olympic qualifying A standard of 10.18 seconds.
Instead, Chambers was only selected yesterday as part of the 4×100 relay squad in a trimmed-down team announced by UK Athletics (UKA) after he had been included in the initial 109-member party named before the Olympic trials staged over the weekend.
Chambers won the trials in a time of 10.25 seconds on Saturday but has yet to record the qualification time this year which would earn him automatic selection for the Games.
However, the 34-year-old former world indoor 60 metres champion bettered the A standard last year.
Former world youth champion Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Mark Lewis-Francis, seventh and sixth in the trials respectively, have been selected for the Europeans.
“The original squad size of 109 athletes has been reduced to 82,” UKA said in a statement.
“Track athletes who have gained automatic qualification for Team GB and other selected athletes have been de-selected in order to focus on their preparations for the Olympic Games.”
Chambers became eligible for the July 27 to Aug. 12 event after the British Olympic Association’s lifetime Games ban on drug cheats was declared invalid in April by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
World 5,000 champion Mo Farah will defend his European crown in Helsinki after being included in the team.
He pulled out of the 1,500 final at the British trials on Saturday and then said on his Twitter account: “I need to rest as much as possible and save my legs to defend my European title”.
