"It's about that time folks! Proud to say I've officially retired from international athletics. It's been a blast and I couldn't have done it without your support!!," he said on Instagram.

Also announcing his retirement from the sport on the eve of the International Association of Athletics Federations World Championships here  is Jeremy Wariner, winner of the 2004 Olympic 400 metres title for the United States.

Chambers won a bronze medal in the 100m at the 1999 World Championships in 9.97sec, which remains as a legal personal best.

His 9.87 clocking from 2002 was annulled, as was his victory in that year's European Championships.

The Londoner's doping ban for taking the banned steroid Tetrahydrogestrinone or THG - thought by the Bay Area Laboratory Cooperative to be untraceable and hence given the name of "The Clear" - also meant that Britain retroactively lost its European Championships gold medal from the 4x100m relay and the 4x100m silver at the following year's World Championships.

When Chambers returned to the sport in 2006 he was part of the British team that won 4x100m gold at the European Championships in Gothenburg, but team-mate Darren Campbell refused to join the team in a celebratory lap of honour in protest at Chambers' return and the loss of the earlier medals.

Chambers subsequently made forays into American Football, playing briefly for German NFL Europa League side Hamburg Sea Devils, and rugby league, although he was not able to get into the Castleford Tigers team.

In May 2008 he unsuccessfully appealed in the High Court against the British Olympic Association’s ruling - subsequently overturned - that prevented British sportsmen and women who had committed serious doping offences from competing in future Olympics.

But the affable Briton remained in the sport, winning the world indoor 60m title in 2010 and, with the BOA rule revoked, competed at the London 2012 Games.

Chambers continued to achieve on the track, winning national titles until as recently as 2014 when he took the British outdoor 100m crown aged 36. 

On the eve of his 39th birthday earlier this year he won 60m bronze at the National Indoor Championships, beating men half his age.

While Chambers was guilty of cheating, many in the sport believed he suffered undue censure while other athletes served bans with a minimum of fuss or got away without any punishment.

Ten years after running 43.45 to win the 400m at the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, 33-year-old Wariner told Sports Illustrated that he has retired from track and field to focus on his business - a sandwich delivery franchise in Dallas.

"Last year, I was 100 per cent dedicated to running and I made a couple of sacrifices to try and make one more Olympics," he said.

"Because of these injuries, toward the end of my career, running became a routine and it wasn't fun any more.

"I knew deep down that I still had it but I was just doing so much to try and stay healthy that I was fatiguing - my body just wasn't recovering.

"That’s when I knew the 44 seconds and 43 seconds were long gone."

Wariner rose to prominence in track and field not too long after fellow Baylor University runner Michael Johnson, the multiple world and Olympic 200 and 400m champion.

He arrived at Baylor in 2003 and trained under Johnson's coach Clyde Hart. 

He signed a six-figure professional contract after Athens 2004 and went on to run under 44-seconds for the 400m nine times from 2005 to 2007 - a total bettered only by Johnson, who did so 22 times.