By Samuel Richards
13 August 2000 - Dwain Chambers runs, his arms go all over the place in an ugly, arm-pumping motion which would hardly feature in too many textbooks on the art of sprinting. But who cares about style when you become a champion?
Chambers, 22, rediscovered that winning feeling in timely, emphatic fashion to secure his place in Sydney by winning the 100 metres at the British Olympic trials in Birmingham just as his season was heading nowhere.
A year ago Chambers was the main man in Britain after winning a bronze medal at the World Championships in Seville, in a year where Jason Gardener and him followed Linford Christie as the only Europeans to break 10 seconds for the 100m.
Ato Boldon may boast that he can do that by tumbling out of bed—but the way Chambers had run this season, it looked as though he was still asleep.
Troubled by a hamstring injury, he entered these trials having sprinted no quicker than 10.24 seconds and had become an outsider for a trials’ race where he had finished second in the last two years.
"But people forget that I am a Championship runner," said Chambers, after winning the final in 10.11secs having been the fastest in Friday night’s heat with 10.28secs.
"The best thing which could have happened to me was that people wrote me off. I enjoyed being the outsider, I could concentrate on what I needed to do and I am delighted.
"I knew I could not have become a bad athlete overnight. I always had faith and I can win a medal in Sydney.
"The hamstring had been a problem and my times were not as quick as what is expected of me but when I think back to that, it does not matter now because it showed I could deliver when I needed to."
London Chambers is trained by Mike McFarlane, the sprinter who, at the Commonwealth Games in Brsibane in 1982, dead-heated in the final of the 200m with Alan Wells.
"Mike has been great" said Chambers. "He is so inspirational and I have learnt so much from him about style and technique. "
Chambers will now plot the next stage in his progression having caught the eye in 1997 when he won the 100m at the European Junior Championships in Llubjiana in a world record junior time of 10.06secs.
Instantly he was dubbed as the new ‘Linford Christie’ and in time, on the international stage where it really matters, he is beginning to show that, though he may not quite match the exploits of Britain’s greatest sprinter, he is creating a niche of his own.
A quite guy, who chuckles nervously as he talks, even when he is down, Chambers knows the target ahead.
"Maurice Greene sets the standards we have to strive towards," he said. "I know I have to start going below 10 seconds as often as I can because once I can get into that pattern, then everything else will improve.
"Four years ago I watched the Olympics on television and it is fantastic I am going there."
It was some final in Birmingham. Chambers, who stumbled at the start last year and could not catch Gardener, was away brilliantly this time. It was catch-up time for the rest, with only European Champion Darren Campbell responding with an effect.
He closed in on Chambers with 20m left but the leader dug deep to hold. Campbell was second in 10.12 with new star Mark Lewis-Francis, just 17, finishing third in 10.24 and Gardener, the defending champion, fourth in 10.28.
"There was more tension before that race than the final in Seville," added Chambers. But the result was as rewarding as he proved himself the best of British. Even if it did look ugly!
