May 17, 2008	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 11, 1429

LONDON, May 16: Dwain Chambers was taking a cocktail of seven banned drugs when he was caught doping in 2003, the disgraced British sprinter revealed on Friday as he took the first step towards a legal bid to be allowed to run in the Olympics.

Chambers received a two-year ban as a result of a positive test for the designer steriod THG. But according to a letter written by his drugs supplier, Victor Conte, he was also taking human growth hormone, the blood-boosting drug EPO, insulin, a testosterone/epitestosterone cream, a drug called modafinil used to promote alertness, and liothryonine, a synthetic form of thyroid hormone.

Conte is the president of the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative (BALCO), the California-based company at the centre of an ongoing investigation into steroids distribution in athletics and baseball that has already resulted in sprinter Marion Jones being sent to jail and may have a similar outcome in the case of baseball star Barry Bonds.

Conte’s letter, which has been leaked to the British media, was due to be handed over to UK Sport’s anti-doping chief John Scott on Friday in a move that Chambers hopes will help to demonstrate that he has repented over his use of banned substances and wants to help clean up the sport.

Chambers, 30, has re-established himself as Britain’s best sprinter since launching a second comeback in January, gaining the 60m silver at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year.

But a ban by the promoters of most of Europe’s top meetings has left him unable to earn a living from athletics.—AFP