Chambers drug shock

"If you become Olympic champion today, or world champion, it means to say that you become a millionaire so the motivation and the temptations are understandable but very disappointing.

"We're only 40 weeks away from the Olympics, and now we have this sad story about some of the best names in the sport resorting to this cheating practice.

"UK Athletics are very vigilant, they educate athletes and warn them about the consequences, so it is very disappointing but I have to say not totally surprising."

American anti-doping experts developed a test for the new steroid after a tip-off in June from a high-profile coach. He alleged some top athletes were using the steroid because it had been tweaked by chemists to make it undetectable under normal testing.

No details of the test have been announced officially, but Chambers is said to have been tested during a training camp in Germany in August.

The analysis took place at the International Olympic Committee accredited laboratory in Los Angeles where the new test was developed.

Chambers has the right to a second analysis of his urine sample or B test. If that confirms the presence of the banned substance, he faces a two-year ban, ruling him out of the Athens Games.

Before the news of the positive test, Britain's drug test agency, UK Sport, is believed to have requested that four of Chambers' samples from summer events be subjected to the new testing as they were suspicious of his involvement with US company, the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative, said to have developed the superdrug.

Balco's owner Victor Conte, runs a track club in San Francisco called KMA with Chambers' coach Remi Korchemny and Chambers uses one of Balco's leading mineral supplements, ZMA, a zinc and magnesium booster.

As a result Chambers' name had already been linked with the scandal, and yesterday, before news of his test broke, he said: "I'm annoyed that I have been caught up in it, but what can I do? I've worked with Victor for two years and never had a problem. I've heard what everyone else has but because I'm in the UK and it's happening in America. I'm out of the loop. I have to keep cool."

Several American athletes have tested positive for THG in what the US Anti-Doping Agency last week called the largest drug-bust in sport.