Dwain Chambers' presence would tarnish the Golden League

The Paris meeting's organiser is ready to break ranks and invite the disgraced sprinter to compete
The Olympic Stadium in Berlin is the unusual opening venue for this season's Golden League at the weekend. Normally acting as the show closer, it has been repositioned as the curtain raiser because the bright blue track will host this summer's world championships.
While most eyes will be focused on the meeting between the athletes inside the arena, others will be keenly trained on another get-together taking place away from the track which threatens to be the headline grabber. The major European meeting promoters are once again being asked to revisit their stated policy of not inviting athletes who have been found guilty of a serious doping violation. Laurent Boquillet, the organiser of the Paris Golden League, due to be held on 17 July, is preparing to break a gentleman's agreement with his fellow promoters by extending an invitation to Dwain Chambers to compete.
Boquillet thinks Chambers, as the current top-ranked European 100m runner, would be sadly missed from his line-up. As disappointing as this stance naturally appears, it lacks even a semblance of truth, in that the Paris meet has traditionally been notoriously difficult for British athletes to gain entry to, and his pro-European leanings are a remarkably recent development. Had Boquillet been equally concerned about Europe's top 400m runner or 5,000m athlete, then his argument may have carried some sway. But the truth of the fact is that he is much more interested in Chambers' notoriety than his rehabilitation, or indeed the sport's long-term interests.
Now, before all of the Dwain brigade get on my case about victimisation, let's get one or two things straight. The policy agreed on by Europe's top meets was never designed as a reaction to, or to be exclusive to, Chambers. High-profile athletes such as Marion Jones, Justin Gatlin, Tim Montgomery and others have taken a lot of money from these meets in recent years with little chance of any of it ever being recouped. The major promoters, quite rightly, decided that they owed nobody a living on their possible return and that they also carried a significant responsibility to try to offer a real financial deterrent to those thinking of using drugs. If it is to have any impact then it is essential that all of the meets uphold policy and don't break ranks just to gain a few more column inches or media minutes.
Of course by writing these words I'm offering Boquillet exactly what he set out to achieve, but I sincerely hope that come the weekend his colleagues ensure this is the last time.
The Paris promoter has said he will travel to Montreuil on Thursday to meet Chambers and in his words get "a better idea of the man". He will find him personable and agreeably contrite but that's not the point. With the help of the World Anti-Doping Agency, and a more aggressive approach from the IAAF, there is a real sense of some ground being gained on the cheats in the past 12 months and as a sport athletics must be seen to be supporting that progress. Whether it be Chambers, Rashid Ramzi or anyone else, it would be a real step backwards if they were able to cash in on their notoriety. It's a sad situation anyway when celebrity culture rewards those who flout the rules by which others try to succeed. The least that Boquillet could do is offer that lane to a young sprinter who is just a couple of hundredths slower than Chambers so far this season. That would be a genuine attempt to incentivise and reward European talent rather than a poorly disguised publicity stunt.
This is supposed to be the last year of the Golden League, which is to be replaced next season by the new Diamond League. The plans announced earlier this year are ambitious and their success will depend primarily on an inordinate amount of unity being displayed by the 12 meetings concerned. There are already rumours that the Diamond League may not get off the ground but they would certainly not be doing their case any good if they allow Paris to break ranks on this important issue.
Just when the sport has a world superstar to promote in the shape of Usain Bolt it should look forward not back. Bolt is scheduled to compete in Paris so why the added distraction?

By Steve Cram
Photographs by Colin Patterson