11 Mar 2009

Berlin to welcome former drug cheat Chambers

9:58 am on 11 March 2009

The organisers of the Golden League athletics meeting in Berlin will welcome the former drug cheat Dwain Chambers with open arms.

The Berlin event is breaking ranks with the group of top European one-day meetings, who have urged their members not to invite athletes who have been caught doping.

Chambers has just returned from a two year ban for using the anabolic steroid THG.

Berlin meet director Gerhard Janetzky says he's surprised Chambers is viewed as the root of all evil.

He says there have been plenty of athletes who were allowed to start after sitting out a ban so why should Chambers' punishment be worse?

Janetzky says Chambers, who recently revealed he had taken a cocktail of more than 300 drugs in one year, could race against Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt, former world record holder Asafa Powell or American Tyson Gay in Germany.