March 11 - Dwain Chambers has admitted that he is working closely again with Victor Conte (pictured), the man who supplied the illegal performance-enhancing drugs that have wrecked his career.
The Londoner revealed he is working with Conte on a revolutionary new method that is behind his incredible success this winter, which culminated at the European Indoor Championships in Turin last weekend when Chambers won the gold medal and also set a European record of 6.42sec, the third fastest in history.
Conte, the founder and president of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (Balco), has put Chambers on a programme that involves him alternately breathing low and high oxygen air through a hypoxicator in a techinque that causes the body to begin creating its own Erythropoietin (EPO), the hormone that stimulates red blood cell production.
A typical hypoxic training session consists of one hour of alternating between breathing hypoxic air for five minutes and then ambient air for five minutes.
It is widely accepted that increased blood cell count allows athletes to recover quicker from training and, therefore, withstand greater loads.
The hypoxicator (pictured), which retails for around $1,300 (£936), is already popular among the world's top cycling teams and is perfectly legal.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have investigated on several occasions whether the technique is illegal but have so far refused to ban it.
Chambers said: "This allows me to have a deeper training load. I suffer less lactic acid, delivering more oxygen to my muscles.
"It’s a shame we didn’t know this five years ago.”
EPO was one of the 300 drugs that Conte prescribed Chambers in the period 2001-2003 when they were last working together.
But, taken naturally, the drug is not illegal, which is why so many distance runners, including Britain's world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe, spend so long training at altitude.
Conte said: “This is the wave of the future.
"Everyone used to think [simulated altitude training] was all about endurance athletes.
"No one thought of applying this to explosive sprinting.”
It is Chambers's continued close association with Conte that will alert officials, already monitoring him after the publication of his controversial book, Race Against Me, on Monday.
Conte was the mastermind behind the biggest doping scandal in sports history when he admitted supplying banned drugs to competitors in a range of sports, including 2000 triple Olympic champion Marion Jones, the world 100m record holder Tim Montgomery, former world boxing champion Shane Moseley and Barry Bonds, the United States biggest baseball star.
Conte was later found guilty over the affair and was sentenced to four months in prison.
But he and Chambers have remained close.
Chambers claims that Conte has been a father figure to him and, even after he tested positive for the designer anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) given to him by the American, that the relationship has not soured.
Conte claims that he has not given drugs to any sportsman or woman since 2003 when Balco was raided by the FBI.
A spokesman for UK Sport, the Government agency that carries out anti-doping in Britain, condemned the relationship between Chambers and Conte.
He told insidethegames: "The method described is not prohibited so there is no question of any anti-doping rule violation taking place.
"However, any athlete who chooses to work with someone previously linked to the supply of prohibited substances has to expect that their relationship will be heavily scrutinised.
"Ultimately it is up to them to make decisions about who they work with and what impact such links might have on their reputation."
MY TAKE ON IT: HA..HA..HA.. CHEATING IS NOT FUNNY
Posts
