Athletics: Jackson joins the critics of Chambers

Feb 21 2008 by Delme Parfitt, South Wales Echo

COLIN Jackson has joined the ranks of those insisting Dwain Chambers should never wear a Great Britain vest again.

Wales’ former 110m hurdles world record holder said athletes were particularly alarmed at Chambers’ comments on BBC’s Inside Sport programme last year, when he insisted it would be almost impossible for a clean athlete to beat a drugs cheat in an Olympic sprint final.

“Personally, I don’t think he should represent Great Britain full-stop,” said Jackson.

“For me I don’t think it is good to have Dwain on the team courtesy of what he said on Inside Sport.

“That’s what most of us feel really offended about and because of that we should not keep him on our teams in the future. “We don’t want him to be influencing any youngsters coming through.

“Sometime people like that can cause a negative effect.”

Jackson said most in the athletics fraternity were prepared to give Chambers another chance when he made his comeback.

But his televised comments changed all that.

“We would have accepted that he’d made a mistake,” added Jackson. “We would have said ‘ you’ve had your knuckles rapped and you’ve paid for it, now move on with your business’.

“But then to come out and be so blatant about what he did – and if you look at the interview, there tends to be a little bit of arrogance in what he was saying – well, that’s what frustrates us.”