improve as an athlete at an age when many have hung up their spikes. “What’s changed for me is my approach to life. When I was young, I just did things because I wanted to, without any reason,” he admits. “I was big-headed. I was always a hard worker, but I didn’t have a good support team around me.” Things are different now. “I’ve learned


I can’t afford to throw my life away. I’ve become a father to two sons, we have a third on the way. I have to keep my family happy, make a decision as a team.” Chambers may look back on his youth and see things he could have done better, but he had extraordinary results even then. He set a world record as a junior in the 100 m with a time of 10.06. Then he became the second British man ever to run the 100 m in under 10 seconds (after the legendary Linford Christie), coming in one one-hundredth of a second below the magic mark at the age of 21 in Nuremberg, Germany, in 1999. He shaved another two-hundredths of a second off his time at the 1999 World Championships in Seville, Spain, setting a personal best of 9.97 seconds. And yet that incredible time was only good enough for a bronze medal. Chambers came of age as a sprinter in


appreciate the support people have given me.”


That support includes a loving family


and an agent, Siza Agha who, he says, has been a great influence. As a result, Chambers continues to


the days when the sport was dominated by the American Maurice Greene, who took gold at the Worlds in an amazing 9.80 seconds. Many athletes would say it was bad luck to have to face a legend like Greene on the track, but Chambers sees things differently. “That can only be good luck,” he says of his rivalry with Greene and fellow British sprinter Jason Gardener, who was also breaking the ten-second barrier at the time. “Myself and Jason were the next in line after Linford to fly the flag for Britain,” Chambers remembers with pride. “To have someone like Maurice so dominant put us on our toes. That kept us hungry. We trained harder to try to beat this guy. That pulled us to PBs,” he says of his personal bests. These days there is another sprinter no one can match—Jamaica’s Usain Bolt— and Chambers says that as brilliant a runner as Maurice Greene was, Bolt is not only in another category, he is in another world. “Whatever you say about Maurice,


MUSCLE&FITNESS 117


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