Spotlight on Chambers as veteran returns to the track
DESPITE the emergence of British sprinters on the elite level over the past two years, the main point of interest at the National Indoor Championships today centres on an old man who is curious to see if he can still run fast.
It is perhaps an indictment of the event that the European gold and silver medallists, Zharnel Hughes and Reece Prescod, will not be at Arena Birmingham. Nor will CJ Ujah, the fastest Brit across 60m in 2018.
Instead, the intrigue revolves around what kind of performance Dwain Chambers can produce at the age of 40.
Sportsmail revealed earlier this week that he has come out of retirement and, if the rumours of his training times are true, then the 2010 World Indoor champion could yet spring a major surprise by making the top two and qualifying for the European Indoors next month. That would be a huge upset, though, considering the diminished field still includes the 2014 World Indoor champion Richard Kilty, the 2018 European 200m silver medallist Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Ojie Edoburun and 2017 British Indoor champion Andrew Robertson.
But Chambers, who set the European indoor record of 6.42sec after his return from a two-year doping ban, is not being discounted by his rivals.
Mitchell-Blake said: ‘ I’m a fan of the sport and Dwain himself, World Indoor, European champion, World Indoor silver medallist, European recordholder and British record holder. Not many have gone faster than his PB (6.42sec).
‘I’m sure it was a surprise to all of us that he’s coming back. But we have two World Indoor champions in the field in Kilty and Chambers and you have to respect them both. Dwain is coming out of retirement, which should be fun for him and the crowd. Richard ran the other day and is dropping times.’ The top two will qualify for the British team contesting the European Indoors in Glasgow next month, assuming they go under the 6.6sec qualifying mark.
TV: LIVE on the BBC via Connected TV and BBC Sport website, today noon-7pm, tomorrow noon-6pm.