Athletics: Injured Chambers sees double dream fade away

Dwain Chambers will not get the third 200 metres place for the European Championships when the British team is announced today, according to his coach, Mike McFarlane.

"I really cannot see the selectors picking him in the 200," said McFarlane, who saw his athlete finish last in Sunday's 200m final at the Norwich Union European trials and AAA Championships after a slow start. "Everybody ran really well yesterday and so to be honest I feel that he will not be chosen. We don't expect any favours.

"I'm sure there will be arguments for and against, but against Dwain is the fact that he has never doubled up at a major championships, and also that he has not proven himself running rounds in the 200 metres."

McFarlane added that the problem which caused the man who has twice beaten the Olympic 100m champion Maurice Greene this season to limp over the line in a time almost three seconds slower than his best was the same one which affected his chances at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, where he finished one place outside the medals.

"It's a recurrence of that," McFarlane said. "His calf cramped up really badly. That's why he stood up and didn't start running for about 10 metres. As long as there's no muscle tear it doesn't take long to recover. It should take about a couple of days. It's more his pride that was hurt on Sunday."

Chambers, who led this season's British 200m rankings before the weekend with a personal best of 20.27sec, saw Marlon Devonish and Darren Campbell earn the two automatic places in 20.18 and 20.26 respectively, with third place going to Christian Malcolm in 20.29.

The choice facing the selectors is not an easy one. Chambers has been Britain's outstanding sprinter so far this season, but Malcolm, a former double world junior champion who finished fifth in the last Olympics, has outstanding ability and is making a good recovery from an Achilles tendon injury. Chris Lambert, second in the 200m at the Commonwealth trials, was unable to compete in Birmingham but also merits consideration.

McFarlane knew the only certain way for Chambers to carry out his ambition of running both 100 and 200m in Munich next month was to earn one of the two automatic places in the 200. "We wanted to make sure there would not be any argument about his selection," he said.

McFarlane realised something was amiss with Chambers when he watched him after the first of Doug Turner's two false starts in the final. "I knew something wasn't right by what he was doing after the first false start," he said. "If you know your athlete well you know when they are making movements they don't normally do. He didn't drive out of the blocks. He just stood up and the others ran past him. He tried to come back, but it was too late."

Jason Gardener, the European 60m champion, will also be waiting anxiously for the selectors' judgement after finishing third in the 100m final behind Mark Lewis-Francis and Campbell. With Chambers assured of a 100m place, it looks as if Gardener's only way into the team for Munich will be if Campbell decides to concentrate on the 200.