British sprinter Dwain Chambers is hoping for gold at this week's European championships after drawing inspiration from the musings of Linford Christie who won the 100 metres at the Barcelona Olympics in the same stadium.Christie spoke to the British team at their training camp in Portugal last week and recited a poem he had written about his experience at the Olympic stadium."It was a long time ago, 18 years ago and that raised a few eyebrows, it even raised Linford's at the time," Chambers said of Christie's win at the age of 32."It was inspirational to watch and know we are going back to the stadium where he won gold, especially for the 100 metre guys, it's a fantastic opportunity for us to recreate history."It was a very motivational speech," he told a news conference on Monday.Asked what he thought of Christie's attempts at verse, Chambers said with a smile: "He's better as an athlete than he is as a poet."Chambers won the 2002 European title in Munich only to be stripped of it when he failed a drugs test in 2003 and admitted to doping. He returned to the sport in 2006 after completing a two-year ban.The 32-year-old is one of the favourites for the title along with Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, who broke 10 seconds for the first time at his national championships with 9.98 in July and is ranked top in Europe this year.STRONG COMPETITIONAsked if he could win, Chambers said: "I'm optimistic about it, if I can draw on everything I have experience-wise."It's my ambition to win but again I have strong competition, especially from Lemaitre, and I have to do the best I can to stay ahead of him."Chambers, whose best time this season is 9.99 which he set when beating Lemaitre at the European team championships in June, thought it would take another sub-10-second time to win the gold in Wednesday's final."I was pushed to a sub-10 in order to win the European Team Cup and beat Lemaitre, so on that basis it will probably be the case again."But the win is the most important thing for me; if I'm rewarded with a sub-10 then that would be a bonus."Once on that start line you can't think. If you think, the race is over. It's a case of just letting your subconscious mind do the work and everything you've trained for comes to this moment."If you ain't done the work it's over, and I've done my work," Chambers added with a big grin.The men's 100 metres heats start at 1715 GMT on Tuesday.(Editing by Clare Fallon; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)(For more news on Reuters India, click http://in.reuters.com)News posted by www.newsinfoline.com
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