Chambers in British team for world championships

LONDON // Sprinter Dwain Chambers was named in Great Britain's squad today for next month's world athletics championships in Berlin. The 31 year old, who in 2006 completed a two-year ban for using the steroid THG, was barred from the Olympics last year because of British Olympic Association (BOA) rules, but is part of the 60-strong team named by UK Athletics. The defending 400m champion Christine Ohuruogu is also included despite concerns over a hamstring injury that caused the Olympic gold-medal winner to miss last week's London Grand Prix.

Chambers was beaten by Simeon Williamson at the British trials in Birmingham this month but UK Athletics have given him one of the two other 100m spots along with Tyrone Edgar. It will be his first appearance at an outdoor world championships since 2003 in Paris, shortly before he became the first high-profile victim of the BALCO doping scandal which rocked the sport. The London-based Chambers has struggled to repair his tarnished reputation since returning to competition, briefly flirting with careers in American football and rugby league, although he is the current European and world indoor champion.

He was snubbed by the organisers of the Berlin and Rome Golden League meetings this year after describing in his autobiography how he had taken 300 different concoctions of drugs before eventually testing positive for THG in 2003. "This team has been selected to give us the best possible results at the 2009 IAAF World Championships in Berlin," Britain's head coach Charles van Commenee said in a statement. "I expect to see athletes demonstrating their ability to perform at the highest level under pressure."

Marathon world record holder Paul Radcliffe and European Indoor 3,000m champion Mo Farah will also be in the team that will prepare in Portugal next week for the Aug 15-23 championships. * Reuters