Dwain Chambers will sit in Court 76 at the Royal Courts of Justice in London today and await a verdict that could define his career or end it. If the sprinter is successful in gaining an historic injunction temporarily lifting his Olympic ban, he will be added to Great Britain’s modest list of medal contenders for the Games in Beijing. If he fails then, subject to an appeal, he may have nowhere left to run.

Jonathan Crystal, QC, will argue that the BOA bylaw banning convicted dopers for life is “an unreasonable restraint of trade”. The irony is that Chambers’s trade has been restrained by Euromeetings, an umbrella group of leading promoters who decided last year not to issue invitations to drugs cheats. Chambers has been able to run only at low-level meetings this year and remains excluded from the grand-prix circuit.

Crystal will say that it is unfair that the sprinter has served a two-year doping ban, in accordance with the rules of the IAAF, the sport’s world governing body, but still has an Olympic ban. He will state that other countries do not have such a bylaw and a number of former offenders will be competing in Beijing. David Pannick, QC, for the BOA, will ask why it has taken Chambers four years to present his case.

Opinion, public and legal, is split and it will fall to Mr Justice Mackay to decide the outcome. He defended Michael Watson when the boxer sued the British Boxing Board of Control after suffering brain damage in a title bout against Chris Eubank. If either side appeals, it will be heard tomorrow, the day before the BOA announces the rest of the athletics team for Beijing. A triumph for Chambers will lead to a full hearing into the legality of the bylaw next year.

One man who wishes that Chambers would drop his case is Frank Dick, the former director of coaching at the British Athletics Federation. Dick supported Chambers’s right to compete in the World Indoor Championships in Valencia in March and is hoping that he will run for Britain in the future. However, he has written an open letter to Chambers pointing out that, just as UK Athletics was bound by the existing rules to pick him in March, so, too, Chambers should respect the BOA bylaw. “Being a champion is not always about hitting the line first,” Dick wrote.

Chambers will ignore such sentiments. A victory today will result in him being selected for the 100 metres and the 4 x 100 metres relay team. Craig Pickering, the only potential teammate to have given his public backing to the bylaw, said that he would partner Chambers if both were to be picked for the relay.

- Oscar Pistorius failed in his final attempt to qualify for the 400 metres at the Beijing Olympics next month. Needing to run 45.55sec to qualify, the 21-year-old double amputee from South Africa finished third at the Spitzen Leichtathletik meeting in Lucerne, with a personal best of 46.25sec.