“There is a trial this weekend,” the High Court judge said. “I mean an athletics one.” He was sensible to make the distinction because the trials and tribulations of Dwain Chambers have long transcended the track.

Chambers did not speak at a directions hearing in Court 17 at the Royal Courts of Justice, just along from where Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, motor racing's governing body, was listening to arguments over his sadomasochistic sex sessions. The British Olympic Association (BOA) is one governing body that is refusing to take a beating and it plans to defend “vigorously” its bylaw banning all drugs cheats from representing Great Britain at the Olympic Games.

The outcome of yesterday's hearing is that Chambers will get his day in court on Wednesday. He will seek an injunction against bylaw 25, allowing him to run in Beijing next month, but the trial will not be heard until next year. The case will be ditched, however, if he fails to finish in the top two at the Olympic trials in Birmingham on Saturday; the selectors can use their discretion to pick the third 100 metres man, thus excluding Chambers.

Chambers's team initially wanted the case to be heard tomorrow, hours before the sprinter, who completed a two-year doping ban in 2005, competes in the 100 metres heats. The BOA team, led by Robert Englehart, QC, a member of the National Anti-Doping Panel, wanted more time. Both sides declared themselves satisfied. “It was tough in there this morning,” Chambers said last night.

The 30-year-old was more comfortable talking about his prospects outside court. “Friday and Saturday, that's what really matters,” he said. “It's going to be hard, but I am confident about what I am capable of doing. The rest will be left up to the decision next Wednesday.”

Chambers's candour regarding his drug-taking meant a direct appeal to the BOA would have ended in failure, so he has taken his case to the High Court, claiming that the bylaw represents a restraint of trade. Legal experts have been divided in previewing the case. Some, including Dick Pound, a lawyer and former president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, have claimed that the BOA is on “shaky ground”. Others believe the same of Chambers's case. Stephen Hornsby, of Davenport Lyons, a London-based firm, said: “Waiting to see whether a legal challenge is 'worth it' does not impress the English courts.”

The judge who will decide Chambers's fate is Mr Justice Mackay, whose cases include upholding the convictions of the London 21/7 suicide bombers after their failed attacks three years ago. He has expertise in sport, too, having defended Michael Watson when the boxer sued the British Boxing Board of Control.

The BOA said that it will use Stevenage Borough to back its case. The football club were denied promotion from the Conference in 1996 because of an inadequate stadium and took the Football League to court. However, the judge dismissed the case, saying: “Unfair changes to the rules for the promotion of sports clubs cannot be challenged retrospectively, after the team has impliedly accepted the rules.” The BOA will argue that Chambers was aware of its rules when he took tetrahydrogestrinone (THG).

If the track trials go to form, Chambers will win. His time of 10.05sec is the fastest by any British runner this year. Tyrone Edgar is next best with 10.06, while men such as Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, Marlon Devonish, Simeon Williamson and Craig Pickering are vying for the three spots. Pickering is the only one to have signed the British Athletes' Commission petition supporting the bylaw.

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