Dwain Chambers will press ahead with his attempt to reach the Olympic Games despite missing out on the 100 metres qualifying time in Birmingham on Sunday.

Although the reformed sprinter won, in just his second race over the distance in two years, his time of 10.28 seconds was outside the A standard he needs to stand even a chance of selection for Bejing.

The other element of the equation, however, lies not on the track but in a court-room and as well as running the required 10.21secs, the 30-year-old must also overturn British Olympic bylaw which precludes anyone who has served a suspension for drugs offences from ever competing at an Olympiad.

Chambers, who ran at the British Athletics Premiership meeting at the Alexander Stadium, professed himself content that both quests are proceeding as he wants. “It’s all going forward,” he said.

“It’s a bit quiet at the moment, but they [my legal team] are doing the work, they are choosing to keep me out of everything, they are briefing me every now and again, but they just want me to concentrate on my job, which I’m doing and I let them do their job. We are still going through proceedings and still negotiating with various people and trying to create our team and doing what’s necessary. It will happen at the right time.”

On the track, Chambers maintains he still has what it takes, not just to represent Great Britain but to win them a medal. His run in Greece in midweek, in which he came home in 10.26secs, was his first since a dalliance with Rugby League outfit Castleford Tigers that did not produce the contract offer he wanted.

Because of his reputation, the Belgrave Harrier is still not earning anything from sprinting but hopes all that could change if he is successful in his attempt to reach Beijing.

“I’m still optimistic,” he said. “I’ve had a lot of fun with rugby and still got the rugby background in me and have got to convert to track which isn’t going to happen overnight but it will come.

“I’ve got three races next week in the South of England so that will probably bring out the best in me. These one-off races are not really my cup of tea.

“I am confident I can do well in Beijing because of my competitive nature. I’ve got talent. I’ve been in the sport clean and I’ve been in the sport dirty and I’ve proven that I can come out of the sporr after almost three years and still come back and be No1 in Britain.

“Not many can do that. I’ve not got a talent beyond what everybody else has, I just believe in myself. I know what I can do and no matter how fast these guys are running, it’s what you can do on the day and I know I can compete on the day.

“I ran 9.97 clean and when I was on the programme I ran 9.87 but it’s something I could have done clean anyway.”