/world sport
LONDON, England -- Sprinter Dwain Chambers will take part in this weekend's British trials for the world indoor championships, because UK Athletics say they have no legal right to bar the man who served a two-year doping ban after failing a test in 2003.
Chambers failed to launch a career as a wide receiver in pro football.
Chambers achieved the necessary qualifying time in Birmingham on Saturday and although UK Athletics said he must be drug tested for a year before being considered for the British team, his lawyers threatened legal action.
"He will be allowed to race but it's through gritted teeth," a UK Athletics spokesman said on Tuesday.
"Legally we have no right to stop him."
The 29-year-old admitted using the designer drug THG (tetrahydrogestrinone) and served his two-year ban but UK Athletics were opposed to allowing him to run in the trials because he has not been regularly drug tested over a 12-month period.
The world governing body, the IAAF, has said he is free to compete.
The winner of the trials is selected automatically for the world championships in Valencia on March 7-9 with the second spot for each event at the discretion of UK Athletics.
Chambers decided to return to athletics last month after he was unsuccessful in launching a career in pro football as a wide receiver with the Hamburg Sea Devils.
"I never said I am retiring," he said. "I am back on the register and about three weeks ago I was tested. I always kept the IAAF informed about where I was."
After running 6.60 seconds in Birmingham Chambers stands third in the British rankings.
UK Athletics chief executive Neil de Vos expressed disappointed at the outcome, saying it did nothing to restore the credibility of a sport rocked by the BALCO scandal and the recent imprisonment of Marion Jones.
"To maintain the public's full confidence in our athletes and in the sport in general we want to ensure beyond doubt that all athletes wishing to compete under the Union flag are drug-free," he said in a statement.
"Our view is that all established athletes must participate in the out-of-competition testing program for a continuous 12 months prior to competing for GB. Dwain is not in that position.
"However, we recognize that we do not have sufficiently strong legal grounds to refuse him an invitation given our published invitation policy. Reluctantly therefore, Dwain Chambers has been informed he is permitted to participate."
Chambers, stripped of his 100m gold medal from the 2002 European Championships, made a brief return to athletics in 2006 and was part of Britain's winning 4x100m relay team at the European Championships in Gothenburg.
Sebastian Coe said he would feel "uncomfortable" if Chambers ever competed at the Olympics.
Coe, a double Olympic middle-distance champion, an IAAF vice-president and chairman of the London 2012 Olympic organizing committee, said: "If you are asking me as an individual would I be comfortable seeing Dwain Chambers in an Olympic vest, the answer is no.
But he added: "It is not for the international federation to make judgments about domestic selection policy - that's entirely for UK Athletics."
Coe, an outspoken anti-drugs campaigner, said he is "not particularly comfortable" about the prospect of Chambers returning to the track.
He noted that "sadly some people have caused a disproportionate amount of damage" to the sport.
He said: "I'm not setting up criteria for UK Athletics selection. We have to accept that the sport has been in fragile times. These have been a very difficult four or five years for us." E-mail to a friend 
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