Athletics: Chambers finds his feet under coach with the golden touch

Ask Mike McFarlane to cast his mind back to the Commonwealth Games of 1982 and a drawn expression appears upon his face. It is only natural. The coach who has made Dwain Chambers the main contender for the 100m crown in the Manchester Games of 2002 was one half of the unique 200m duel that even the photo-finish equipment could not decide in Brisbane 20 years ago. When the scoreboard flashed up the result, it confirmed a result that remains the only dead heat in the history of track and field at the Commonwealth Games: 1= Mike McFarlane (England), Allan Wells (Scotland) 20.43sec.

"Looking back now, it doesn't feel like it was a win," McFarlane reflected, "because you weren't able to do a lap of honour and you weren't able to stand on top of the podium on your own. It was a strange feeling standing on the top step with Allan. If my memory serves me right they played half of both national anthems, Scotland the Brave and Land of Hope and Glory. That was a strange combination."

At least it would just be one long Land of Hope and Glory if McFarlane's young protégé were to cross the line level with the even younger Mark Lewis-Francis at around 8.35pm and 10 seconds in the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday night. The 24-year-old Chambers might have established himself as favourite with wins against Maurice Greene in Oslo and Sheffield last month, but his 19-year-old England team-mate and rival was just 0.04sec behind him in the Commonwealth trials five weeks ago and only 0.02sec behind in Sheffield.

"There are a lot of threats in the field," McFarlane said, "but I think the danger to Dwain will come from Mark. As I've said to Dwain, you can't be looking at Mark as a 19-year-old. You've got to look at him as a world-class sprinter. He's capable of running under 10 seconds.

"It's going to be interesting. That's for sure. It keeps Dwain on his toes and it gives Mark something to aim for."

The big aim for both young men in Manchester is to become only the third British winner of the Commonwealth 100m since 1938. Wells won for Scotland in 1982 and Linford Christie for England in 1990 and 1994. And they, of course, both went on to become Olympic 100m champions.

Only two other British sprinters, in fact, have finished among the medals in the Commonwealth 100m since 1938: Cameron Sharp of Scotland, who finished third behind Wells and a young Ben Johnson in 1982, and McFarlane, who took bronze behind a bigger Ben Johnson and an emerging Christie in Edinburgh in 1986. McFarlane also won an Olympic medal in his own life in the fast lane: he passed the 4 x 100m relay baton on to Christie for the anchor leg in the British team that won silver behind the Soviet Union in Seoul in 1988.

Now it is Chambers who has picked up the baton from Christie as Britain's leading sprinter on the international stage. His victories over Greene prompted some observers to talk of a new world order among the world's fastest men. McFarlane was not one of them. The fact that Greene has since recorded his ninth sub-9.90sec 100m and his 43rd sub-10sec clocking has not surprised him.

"Those statistics just back up what a very high benchmark Maurice has set," McFarlane said. "He's been phenomenal over the last five years and that's the standard you've got to aim for." Chambers, back in full training and in peak fitness after the minor calf injury suffered in the 200m at the AAA Championships last weekend, has just three non-wind-assisted sub-10sec times to his name, though he probably would have another had the wind gauge not malfunctioned in the quarter-finals at the world championships in Edmonton last summer. Christie achieved the feat nine times – running faster than 9.97sec, Chambers' personal best, on just four of those occasions.

"Yeah, so Dwain's almost halfway there, halfway to what Linford did," McFarlane mused. "And he's still 24."

McFarlane has been guiding Chambers for five years now, within the group of athletes he coaches at the New River track in Wood Green, North London. Now 43, the sprinter-turned-coach spends his working week as a development officer for the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme in inner-city London – which is one reason why he had no qualms about sending Chambers off to San Francisco earlier this year to work with Remi Korchemny, the veteran Ukrainian coach who helped Valentin Petrovsky, a professor at the Institute of Physical Culture in Kiev, to turn Valeri Borzov into the 1972 Olympic 100m and 200m champion.

"I don't know everything," McFarlane said. "And I don't have the time to find out everything. I have to go to work. I don't have the opportunity to be a full-time coach. So someone coming along and saying, 'Mike, I want to give you some help. I want to show you some ideas'... I don't see it as a problem. It's like when Alex Ferguson sent Brian Kidd to Europe to learn about training techniques and what the big Continental clubs did. He came back and Man United were probably yards ahead of everybody else. That's the way I look at it."

It will have been a smart move if McFarlane's man manages to finish just a fraction of a yard ahead of everybody else in the future home of Manchester City on Saturday.