Dwain Chambers' appeal against a lifetime Olympic ban will go ahead despite a petition signed by around 200 past and present British athletes.

Some of the country's greatest Olympians, including Dame Kelly Holmes and Sir Steve Redgrave, have backed calls by the British Athletes Commission to keep drugs cheats, even after serving suspensions, out of Olympic competition.

Chambers is currently banned under a British Olympic Association bylaw but the sprinter is to challenge the ruling in the High Court. The BAC petition opposes the bylaw's removal.

Chambers falls foul of the 16-year-old BOA ruling after serving a two-year ban for testing positive anabolic designer steroid tetrahydrogestrinone (THG) in 2003.

The 30-year-old and his legal advisors made the decision to step up their challenge after he easily bettered the 100metres qualifying time for this year's Beijing Games of 10.21 seconds in Germany over the weekend.

Indeed, Chambers twice broke the required standard at Biberac an der Reiss, clocking 10.14secs and a world-class 10.06sec, both displays earning a standing ovation.

The reaction was not dissimilar to that after Chambers returned to the sport in January and won 60m silver at the World Indoor Championships in Valencia.

He will now speak to his barrister over the next couple of days and proceedings could be served on the BOA by Friday.

"The appeal is going ahead," said his lawyer Nick Collins who, although respecting the comments made by some great former British Olympians, believes the views of others, most notably the general public, should be heard.

Collins added: "The petition speaks volumes for the names that are not on it as much as for the names that are on it.

"I understand that Dwain received a fantastic reception on Saturday.

"As far as I'm aware none of the names on that petition were there.

"It is for others to judge whether the public opinion is with him or not, in his appeal."

The petition makes it clear drug cheats should always be made unwelcome.

"Every athlete that competes for Great Britain knows the British Olympic Association's rules," said Redgrave in his personal statement.

"If an athlete takes the risk of cheating they have to accept the penalties that go with this."

Holmes said: "I have no hesitation in giving my full support to the BOA bylaw and their continuing commitment to seek a lifetime Olympic ban for sports people convicted of taking performance-enhancing drugs.

"It is essential that we continue to give the clearest and strongest message to young people that using banned substances to enhance performance is totally unacceptable."

The BOA are adamant they will defend themselves whatever the financial cost of the case in the High Court, although a bill of around £200,000 could be expected if they lost. That would add further to their financial problems after suffering a record loss of £1.3million last year.

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