Chambers takes self belief to new level
As bold statements go, it was right up there with the best of them.
Fresh from winning the 100m at the European Team Championship in Portugal on Saturday, Dwain Chambers took self belief to a whole new level.
As BBC 5 Live's trackside reporter, I am so used to athletes generally being guarded, but Chambers' remarks were as unusual as they were unexpected.
With utter conviction he predicted he would take the gold medal at the world championships in Berlin this August.
"I guarantee I will cross the line before anyone else does," he said and just to make sure he had got his message across he added that he was not joking.
It seems it is part of "Project Bolt", and a genuine belief the fastest man in the world can be beaten. The mind games have begun in the build up to Berlin.
Whatever path Chambers' career has taken, you certainly cannot fault his confidence and his body language clearly spoke of a man on a mission to shake off his doping past and simply perform.
He got an unexpected opportunity to do that again on Sunday in Leiria and duly delivered.
Chambers answered an SOS call to run the 200m after Rikki Fifton was ruled out due to a hamstring injury. Chambers ran such a strong bend that the race was already won coming into the home straight as the Londoner secured the sprint double.
On Saturday Fifton had had a face like thunder as he walked through the interview area. There had been rumours that he was carrying an injury and so it proved.
Running the third bend in the 4x100m relay he looked in agony as he aggravated a hamstring problem, and in the blink of an eye, the chance for maximum points in the sprint relay had gone.
So should he have taken to the track? It was a clearly a risk and one that backfired.
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Darren Campbell pulled no punches on BBC 5 Live with his fierce criticism of UK Athletics.
Jenny Meadows had gone for a seven mile run on Sunday morning only to be asked to run in the 4x400m relay, following Christine Ohuruogu's withdrawal.
This was the same Jenny Meadows who had been unable to run in the 800m on Saturday due to concerns about a hamstring. Campbell described it as a "shambles" and questioned why a replacement had not been added to the squad when Nicola Sanders first withdrew.
The situation was compounded after Ohuruogu was forced to miss the relay following a below-par performance in the 200m due to a slight virus.
Campbell was not the only man to tale a swipe at the governing body.
Stuart Stokes is a landscape gardener, but gave up five days of work to represent Britain in Portugal.
Invited out of retirement to help the team, the 32-year-old Stokes ran the steeplechase, but in the interview area afterwards he was critical at the lack of financial support given to some athletes, and while proud to represent his country, he could not disguise his frustration at those in charge of the sport.
Phillips Idowu was also an unhappy man in Portugal.
Idowu refused an interview with BBC 5 Live after being beaten yet again in the triple jump by his nemesis Nelson Evora.
The Portuguese athlete denied Idowu the Olympic title in Beijing and despite hiding behind bright red sunglasses, the British triple jumper could not mask his disappointment at finishing runner-up again.
But there were plenty of positives with Britain finishing in third place. That was higher than most pundits predicted.
Britain won seven individual events rounded off with an impressive win for the men in the 4x400m relay.
Young athletes such as Hannah England and David Greene made their mark, while Kate Dennison set a new national record in the pole vault.
And as for a highlight? When Tim Benjamin clutched his British vest after anchoring the relay squad to victory it summed up what it meant to him to be competing at all. He so nearly quit the sport through injury, yet it fell to him to bring the curtain down on the weekend and he did it in style.
I'm 5 Live's athletics reporter and will be trackside with all the stories behind the scenes, the injuries and intrigue, the gossip and glory.
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~30~RS~)
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Is Chambers just making for good soundbites, or is he so full of self confidence that he genuinely believes Bolt can be beaten?
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Chambers needs to build up his public exposure. If he's getting lots of media coverage race organisers are going to be more likely to invite him to races. That, and he's performing extremely well.
If people want to see him run, and he's building up a bit of hype and following, it's tougher to not invite him.
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Dwains problem is he is very famous so much was made of his past. But he is a great and one of my favorite athletes. The coverage this weekend was great, shame its over.
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BBC yet agian did plenty of coverage of the track events but failled to give adequate time to the field. Just how many replays of the exact point that Rikki Fifton hurt his hamstring do we need to see???
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I agree with you JS...still not great with the structure of the coverage (talking rubbish while the field events are happening, followed by live track events, replays of track events, slow-mo replays of track events, and then a brief delayed snippet of the field events), but the overall coverage was better than expected. The BBC have lowered the expecations of the quality of the TV athletics coverage so far, that I was almost impressed by the weekend's offering.
There is absolutely NO reason whatsoever that every attempt by a GB athletics in every field event should not have been shown (some delayed no doubt, but mostly live). Then toss in the performances of those expected to post very good performances (Evora, Friedrich, Obergföll, Wlodarczyk, Gomes) and you have a nice balanced coverage when you fill the rest with less talk and more track action.
What was blatantly obvious on Sunday was that Steve Cram had been told to keep a little quieter about his views on 'devil-take-the-hindmost' as there was much less vocal comment on this after Saturday's effort. Hey, if they didn't want to watch that, they could've shown the field events instead!
As an aside, it was good to see Abdul Buhari post a season's best out there with the way that UKA have messed him around over the past 6 months!
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Athletes get criticised for not having enough ambition, what would be the point in Dwain going to the World Championships and aiming for second. Might seem like an almost impossible task for him to beat Bolt, but he has to try and part of that is having confidence. Asafa Powell lacks that confidence and as a result going into major finals he underperforms. If Dwain goes in there thinking he can win (will win even) hopefully he can run his perfect race. Maybe he wont get first but he could medal.
A slight aside I like Dwain from a British (or even european) point of view he brings character, he performs and he makes it interesting; he did his crime had his punishment now get off his back and let him compete. I would be a lot more likely to go out of my way to watch an event if he was there. Other people who have had bans have been allowed to compete so let him.
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You call it self belief I call it being delusional. There is absolutely no chance of Dwain being able to beat Usain Bolt. Even if Bolt pulled up with a hamstring injury 20m from the finish line he would still finish ahead of Dwain.
If as expected Tyson Gay doubles up (and he should given he is the defending champion in both races) Dwain also has absolutely no chance of defeating him.
Dwain would earn much more respect if he was more humble and realistic and focused on getting to the final and then challenging for a medal. I have lost all respect I have for him with this nonsense talk of defeating Usain Bolt. I am not saying he should come out and say before hand that everyone is basically running for second place but he should keep quiet and focus on his training and performances like every other sprinter is doing. Even Tyson Gay with his absolutely unbelievable 19.58 in the 200m is not going on about defeating Usain.
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Some people are missing the point here. Sprinting is always going to have more of the big talkers, interesting characters, overconfident boasters etc. than most because there is such an esteem and title in the 100m of been the fastest man on the planet. What he said (or has been saying) about his chances is hardly knew, after sprinters in the past like Maurice Greene have always exoded confidence, even when he (Maurice) wasn't the sprinter he once was some years ago, he hardly arrested his demeanour did he?
Let him talk. If he wins, it will look visionary, if he fails he has eggs on his face. At the moment his times aren't that great yet but who knows, if he runs the perfect race in berlin and the rest don't it will be some performance and probably the story of the year.
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I cannot understan why so many people give Dwain such a hard time. He is the best sprinter we have had since Linford Christie, who we later found out was a cheat also. The difference is Dwain has suffered continually from the like of Steve Cram and Kelly Holmes and Linford faded away. Is that british shotputter guy not back on the circuit. Myerscough i think. He cheated but is allwed to compete. All these events are cheating themselves and the viewing public by not letting the best european sprinter run. I thought we were tought to forgive etc. For all the people who dont think he should run then tell me please. If someone goes to prison for a minor crime, should the be chastised and not allowed to work for the rest of their lives. Please give me a break. CHambers has the possibility to go low 9.8 of 9.7. He needs the competition tho. Please let him run.
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where my blogs??
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No.8 etuoyo...i totally agree, its all well and good that Dwain is bringing in premier league style psych-out tactics but there is no hiding place on a track.Sure if Usain has a bad World Championships then an upset could be on the cards but factor in Tyson Gay as well? no im not convinced.
I give him fifth in a world 100m final and seventh in a 200m.
Can anyone say if Dwain has run under ten seconds without performance enhancers? When did he admit taking them from?
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Dwain must be mad if he thinks he will even get close to Bolt, let alone beat him. I, like many others, would be incredibly suspicious if Chambers does manage to pull off a win at the championships.
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i cant see chambers beating bolt gay or powell, but seeing that confidence can only be good for the sport as it makes it interesting, chambers should be allowed to run all events now, hes been through hell and uk athletics have gone to far with him i think, he was young made a stupid mistake and been more than punished, i cant stand ppl like cram and especially darren cambell who has far to much to say, he ran 4x100 with chambers then straight after wouldnt stand with the team when they won because of chambers, so why run with chambers to start with and seconds after do that?, he ruined it for the other guys not just chambers, and yet cambell was working with another drug cheat at the time, i bet cambell gets well paid in the future with the statements he has come out with..........
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No.14 you have the attitude of someone who will never win anything; any top athlete who enters the world championships without the belief they can win shouldnt be there. Yeah he probably wont win and he is a long shot for a medal at all, but do you really want to hear our athletes saying 'well I really dont think I can win Bolt is so much better than me, then there are Gay and Powell they are both really good too, I'm just going along for the fun of it, well its a free holiday isnt it' thats the loser attitude you and many others posting here seem to advocate.
Dwain is an incredibly talented athlete who happened to go down the wrong path. His times as a junior were very fast; because of his past he will be under a microscope as far as testing goes. If (and everyone knows its a long shot) he pulled it off and won it would simply show a glimpse of what he could have been had he not messed up so badly.
Dwains attitude should be admired not scorned; its an approach that to many British athletes could really do with borrowing.
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For Sonja McLaughlan to think that Dwain is mad dare think he can beat Usain tells me she and the other writers have no knowledge of the sport. Believe me when I say that Tyson Gaye, Powell and the rest ALL have their version of 'Project Bolt'. Tyson Gaye is adamant he will prevail in the 100 & 200 in Berlin and break Bolts world record. Is he mad?
Is Powell mad to think he can still lower Bolts time and beat him? There are 6 to 7 athletes who have their projects and methods they think will get them past the line before Bolt. Lets not try and make it a crime to dream what seems the impossible. Because all I have to do is name Ali, Wells, McGuigan, Honeyghan, Buster Douglas, Ohoroghu. These people beat opponents who where seemingly unbeatable. And let's not try and jump on every word Dwain says.
There's no point competing in anything work or sport if you think you can't reach the top or try your best to achieve your best. You might as well stay at home.
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