Sprinter Dwain Chambers will not be able to compete at the Beijing Olympics next month after he failed to gain an injunction against a British Olympic Association (BOA) ban in the High Court on Friday.
The 30-year-old was challenging a BOA bylaw which states that any athlete found guilty of taking drugs is barred from competing for Britain in the Olympics.
Chambers, who won the 100 metres at the British Olympic trials last weekend in 10.0 seconds, completed a two-year doping ban in 2006 after testing positive for the steroid THG in 2003.
The London-based sprinter's legal team had argued that the BOA ban represented a restraint of trade.
However, judge Colin MacKay said if the challenge had gone to a fully-contested hearing he was not satisfied that Chambers had a reasonable prospect of proving his case.
He said to have allowed the challenge meant ‘the harmony and management of the British team would have been upset’.
BOA chairman Colin Moynihan was pleased with the verdict and said it sent out a strong message to other athletes.
‘It's a matter of regret that Dwain Chambers, an athlete of such undoubted talent, should by his own actions have put himself out of the running to shine on the Olympic stage in Beijing,’ Moynihan told reporters outside court.
‘The BOA will continue to send a powerful message that nobody found guilty of serious drug-cheating offences should have the honour of wearing GB vests at the Olympic Games.’
With the International Olympic Committee (IOC) deadline for naming team members for the Beijing Games this weekend, Chambers must decide quickly whether to appeal.
