Linford Christie has called on British athletics to move on from the Dwain Chambers drugs controversy and get back to winning medals.

"We need to be positive and heal, it's all about healing now. Just let it go, " Christie, who won the Olympic gold medal in the 100 metres at the 1992 Barcelona games, said

Chambers, who has returned from a two-year drugs ban, forced the reluctant Great Britain selectors to pick him by winning the 60m at last weekend's trials in Sheffield. However, despite being able to run in Spain, Chambers is still restricted by the British Olympic Association's by-law which prevents anyone who serves a drug ban from ever competing for Great Britain in the Olympics.

"Selectors do what they need to do and the athletes go out there and perform. That's the way it is," said Christie, who intends to be in Beijing as coach to Christian Malcolm.

Christie, Britain's most successful sprinter, side-stepped the issue of whether Chambers should represent his Great Britain in next month's World Indoor Championships in Valencia. But he urged British athletes, officials and fans to be positive about the sport.

"We spend the majority of our time talking about the minority of people but we should spend the majority of the time talking about the majority of our people," he said. "That's where it's all gone wrong.

"We've got Beijing and Valencia so let's be positive for a change. In the sport, if you've got an injury and think negatively it never heals but if you can be positive you can heal yourself and that's what we've got to do now.

Christie has had his own problems with drug tests in the past. He tested positive for a stimulant at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but was cleared after the International Olympic Committee voted by a margin of 11 to 10 that the substance could have come from drinking ginseng, which was allowed.

Then, after coming out of retirement in 1999, Christie tested positive for the performance-enhancing drug Nandrolone, at a meeting in Germany.

He claimed the substance had been accidentally introduced to his system by taking nutritional supplements but the IAAF rejected the explanation and handed him a two-year ban even though UK Athletics felt there was "reasonable doubt" whether he had taken the drug deliberately.

But Christie, who coaches his squad at Brunel University, does not believe that drugs controversies, including the recent jailing of American star Marion Jones, are deterring youngsters from taking up the sport - or spectators from watching it.

"It doesn't make any difference. I've had more people this year wanting to join my group than last year," he said. "Take a step down to Brunel and Picketts Lock or any of those centres and athletics is still a family sport.

"People still love athletics. Sheffield was packed last weekend, the genuine people who want to see a good performance will come and watch. They just come to watch athletics," he added.