Dwain Chambers, European 100 metres champion, is facing the end of his track career after being found guilty of taking the banned steroid THG. David Powell, Athletics Correspondent, reports on the latest drugs sports scandal.

Is this the end of the sprinter's career?

I think it probably is. He is 25, has a lifetime Olympics ban and a two year ban from the sport. His solicitor has said that he may take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. It is hard to see how he can win if he does. Also, there is not one case of a successful sprinter who has made a comeback. I would be very surprised if Chambers can return to any kind of decent international level.

How big a loss is Chambers to British athletics?

A pretty sizable loss, but he is not the best British sprinter at the moment. That, one would have to say, is Darren Campbell. But Chambers is a European champion and has been fourth in an Olympics. I would say he is a loss particularly now because the British athletics team is weaker than it has been in recent years. He was a genuine medal prospect for the Athens games though probably not a winner.

What does the future hold for him?

There is talk about him pursuing a career in American footballer as a wide receiver. He expressed an interest in doing that some weeks ago, but he said he was going to wait until the end of the hearing before making any final decision.

We do not know if he has serious potential as an American footballer. He did some trials with NFL Europe and scouts said on a preliminary studies that they were reasonably impressed. He was invited to Tampa to do a proper trial which he has yet to take up. It remains to be seen whether he has what it takes to make it in American Football.

What about an appeal?

At the moment Chambers is not committing to whether he will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne. The court is primarily concerned with whether the governing body, in this case UK Athletics, has followed its own rules. The fact that Chambers protests that he did not take THG deliberately, is not a basis for appeal, or all athletes would claim that.

Have other athletes tried to appeal?

There have been cases of athletes who have protested their innocence and even proved it. Diane Modahl spent a small fortune in fighting a 19-month legal battle ultimately proving her innocence having been charged with a steroid offence.

Mark Richardson, the 400 metres runner, tested positive in 1999 for taking nandrolone and was banned for two years. He managed to convince the authorities that, while he had taken substances, he had taken them inadvertently, and had his sentence reduced.

Alain Baxter, the skier who won an Olympic bronze medal at the last Olympics, had it removed because he tested positive for a banned substance. The international doping authorities said in their verdicts that he did not wilfully cheat - Baxter claimed he took a nasal congestant, but was punishable under the strict liability rule.

UK Sport has today announced new processes for dealing with drugs in sport. What are they?

The decision is that, in future, it will announce the names of any sports men or women who fail drugs tests after the A sample has been delivered. It has been policy in athletics to announce positive tests only after the B sample has been tested.

In a sense this forces sport out of the closet. Athletics has been very good on the whole in revealing the names of its drugs cheats. Other sports such as football, rugby and tennis has been very slow to do the same. This policy has to be welcomed among the sports that have been openly campaigning for the drugs cheats to be named.