Dwain Chambers, GBR

Personal Bests:

1994

Dwain  was English Schools Intermediates champion at 100m. 

1995

Dwain won gold medals at both 100m and sprint relay at the European Juniors.

1997

Dwain won gold medals at both 100m and sprint relay at the European Juniors, when, from a previous PB of 10.32/10.27w, he ran 10.06 to win the 100m. This was a World Junior Record, the first by a British sprinter since Peter Radford in 1958.

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1998

Dwain had a splendid season in 1998, when he took the European silver medal and placed 3rd in the World Cup at 100m, although his time of 10.03 in Johannesburg was aided by high altitude and a rolling start.

1999

On 12 June 1999 in Nuremberg he was 2nd to Bruny Surin at 100m - in 9.99, thus becoming the second European sprinter to break the 10-second barrier. He then won for Britain at the European Cup and produced a series of fast times at 100m, including a brilliant win in 10.05 in cold weather at Gateshead, 10.07w when 2nd at the AAAs, 10.04 for 3rd at the British Grand Prix, and finally another best, 9.97, for the bronze medal at the World Championships.

2000

Although he declined selection for the European Indoors in 2000, Dwain was Britain's second fastest of the year at 60m at 6.55. He was back in top form outdoors at the AAAs, where he won the 100m title in 10.11, despite a -0.8 m/s wind and had a brilliant victory over a top field including Maurice Greene at Gateshead, running 10.11 into a headwind. He improved his year's best to 10.08 in the Olympic final when he placed fourth.

2001

He had a great season at 100m in 2001 from his win at the European Clubs Cup in 10.12 to a commanding win at the Goodwill Games (10.11 with a head-wind). Other highlights included his 10.01 win at Seville, 10.00 for 3rd in Lausanne and 10.01 to win the AAAs, the fastest ever time with an allowable wind by a British athlete in Britain. At the World Championships he broke ten seconds for 100m twice, 9.97 (no wind reading) in the quarter-final and 9.99 for fifth in the final. He also made a breakthrough at 200m with 3rd in the AAAs in a personal best time of 20.65 and a brilliant win at the Norwich Union British Grand Prix in 20.31.

2002

Dwain was ranked as the world number two at 100m in 2002. After a brilliant 200m PB of 20.27 in Athens, in the cool of Manchester he ran brilliantly to win the Commonwealth Trials 100m in 10.03. Appointed team captain, he led by example at the European Cup by winning the 100m in 10.04 and pulling away from the field on the anchor leg of the 4x100m. 

He then had two exhilarating wins at 100m, beating Maurice Greene on both occasions, with 10.05 in Oslo and 9.95w in Sheffield, where he was also 2nd at 200m in 20.38. His bid for 100m gold at the Commonwealth Games started well with wins in preliminary rounds in 10.19, 10.17 and 10.06, but he got off to a bad start in the final and pulled up with cramps, later attributed to lack of fluids. 

He bounced back brilliantly to take the gold medal in a championship best of 9.96 at the Europeans and added a superb run to bring the British team to gold in the 4x100m relay in a world-leading time of 38.19. He reduced his 100m best to 9.94 in his heat in Zürich before taking third in the final in 10.05 against the wind, and ran the first ever 'legal' sub-10 second time in Britain by a British athlete to win the 100m at the Norwich Union GP in 9.98 from the Americans Tim Montgomery and Maurice Greene. 

At last finding perfect conditions, with a tailwind on the legal limit of 2.0 m/s, he tied Linford Christie's European record of 9.87 in second place to Montgomery's world record of 9.78 at the Grand Prix Final. A week later, however, he was below par with fifth at the World Cup in 10.16.

2003

Dwain ran a disappointing 6.68 for 4th in his 60m heat at the Norwich Union Grand Prix. He improved to 6.59 for 2nd in the AAAs, but was beaten by 0.01 by Mark Lewis-Francis and thus missed a World Indoor Championships place. Outdoors he ran two 100m races in the USA: 3rd at Modesto in 10.19 and 4th at Eugene in 10.17, before mixed fortunes in major 100m races in Europe, with a best of 10.03 for 2nd in the Grand Prix at Tríkala and wins in Britain at Glasgow and Gateshead. 

He won the AAA title in superb style in 10.08, a time worth substantially under 10 seconds in favourable conditions given a strongish headwind at -1.8 m/s, and was denied a super-fast time in bizarre circumstances at the British Grand Prix.  He won the race, delayed by 20 minutes when the timing system broke, beating a top-class field, beating a top-class field, and was given a hand-timed 10.0 but this was shown as 9.96 on video analysis. 

Fourth at 100m and a silver in the 4x100m is fine, but was nonetheless a little below what might have been at the World Championships. A marginal favourite for the title after winning his semi in 10.06 and running 10.03 in his quarter-final, he just missed a medal, 4th in 10.08, in the 100m and he was run down by Joshua Johnson (USA) in the 4x100m after taking the baton in the lead on the anchor leg of the sprint relay. 

He was only 7th in Brussels but ran somewhat better for 4th in the World Athletics Final for 4th in 10.10.

However, in October Dwain tested positive for the anabolic steroid THG. READ STORY

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