UK Athletics is ready to defy the sport's world governing body by sticking to its guns and denying Dwain Chambers the chance to run for Great Britain. Yesterday Chris Butler, the International Association of Athletics Federations medical and anti-doping manager, insisted Chambers was free to run "unless there is a retirement form on file at UKA which has not been passed on to the IAAF".
But sources close to UKA last night said it would not retract its decision to prevent Chambers from attempting to return to the British team for the World Indoor Championships in Valencia in March. UKA will not allow him back because he has not taken a drugs test within the past 12 months under its rules, and says it is following the guidelines laid down by the IAAF.
Chambers pursued a career in American football with NFL Europa last year after returning to athletics in 2006. Everything pointed to him not making a track and field comeback before his gridiron ambitions dissolved when the NFL's European venture failed to materialise.
He was taken off the UK Sport Drug Testing database, and Butler added: "From an anti-doping rules perspective, he is fine to continue. The rule is in place to stop athletes claiming retirement and refusing drugs testing and then coming back."
The whole saga is fast becoming a nonsense because the underlying factor in UKA's tough stance is that Chambers' return would make a mockery of its attempt to clean up the sport.
Having failed a test in 2003 for the anabolic steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG), Chambers served a two-year ban. He returned to help Britain's men win the 4x100m relay gold at the European Championships in Gothenburg in 2006 in his comeback season but then disappeared again to the NFL.
Now he is chasing a qualifying time of 6.09sec in Birmingham on Saturday to win a place in the 60m at the world championships trials the following weekend in Sheffield. But UKA and the IAAF face conflict because Chambers' legal team will do all they can to prove that nothing can prevent him from taking part.
UKA's chief executive, Niels de Vos, has condemned drug cheats during the past week and insisted that Chambers would not be welcomed back.
But the great irony is that even if he made it to Sheffield, he is highly unlikely to win a place in the team for Valencia as Craig Pickering, the European indoor silver medallist, is the clear favourite. He is a quicker indoor runner than Chambers, whose greater ability has always been over 100m.
At least the matter will not drag on into the summer because Chambers is banned for life by the British Olympic Association from competing at the Olympics, so whatever he does outdoors will not lead to selection. No wonder UKA is contemplating incorporating the BOA's rules to ensure this type of embarrassment will never happening again.
