GUERNSEY’S Olympic hopeful Dale Garland believes drugs cheats in athletics should be banned for life. But the Guernseyman looks likely to miss out on competing at the same meet as controversial British sprinter Dwain Chambers at the world indoor trials and national championships in Sheffield this weekend.
Chambers tested positive for the steroid THG in 2003 and served a two-year ban, but returned to the sport in 2006, before pursuing a career in American football.
‘My opinion is if you are caught using drugs, you should be banned for life,’ said Garland.
‘However, the rules are not that and Dwain has served his time. UK Athletics can’t stop him running and I don’t think they should.’
He is also concerned he could be competing on an unlevel playing field against drug cheats in Beijing and at other big events.
‘It’s upsetting. The higher up you get the more upset you get. Once there is prize money and endorsements it becomes more frustrating when people are stealing medals off you. I think Britain is fairly clean, but on that world stage you always have doubts.’
Sheffield could be a step too soon for Garland after tearing quad muscles.
‘I’m still undecided if I’m going or not - it’s 75:25 against me doing it. If I can’t sprint flat out by tomorrow I won’t do it. The next two days are a big two days,’ he said yesterday.
He may instead race next weekend in Birmingham or in Sheffield in the Inter City Cup for Bristol - before the qualifying deadline for the world indoor championships.
Bath University student Tom Druce, who is now ranked seventh nationally after his personal best run of 48.14sec. in reaching the 400m final at the Birmingham Games last weekend, said when he was a schoolboy he used to look up to Chambers, who won the 60m at the same meet.
‘Finding out he was on illegal substances, you almost feel cheated for looking up to someone like that.’
‘He got quite a good reaction from the crowd [in Birmingham] which I was surprised at - I certainly did not clap,’ he admitted.
‘I’m training at the same place as Craig Pickering [100m sprinter] who will be his main rival at the weekend and he was surprised, like myself, with the reaction.
‘It’s proven without doubt he did cheat with drugs. I don’t see why he should be allowed back in,’ he said.
Druce insists that in Britain now the drugs testing system is as rigorous as possible.
‘Testing is playing catch-up and Britain is making more effort to counteract the problem than other countries,’ Druce said.
‘At a local level it’s not really spoken about and we tend to assume that people don’t dabble with anything illegal at Island Games level.
‘Science is always one step ahead, which is the problem, but British testing is very strict. Whether the world as a sport can wipe it out, I doubt to be honest,’ he added.
Their coach and staunch anti-drugs campaigner Malcolm Arnold has urged the international authorities to clean up the sport around the world to ensure all athletes are on a level playing field.
He believes the bottom line is whether the IAAF and World Anti-Doping Agency can calm down those who use illegal substances to get to Olympic finals.
‘A lot of people tend to turn a blind eye to what’s happening and are quite happy if their athletes do well regardless of how it’s done,’ he told Athletics Weekly magazine.
‘We’ve seen a number of sad disqualifications in the recent past from some athletes who have been declared winners.
‘When you are legal and above board it gets doubly hard,’ he stated.
Garland believes his coach’s comments are valid.
‘The testing regulations for different countries are different.
‘It has not been proved but there are dirty countries in effect.
‘They don’t test their athletes or they let them know when they are being tested,’ he said.
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