By Tom Fordyce

Frank Dick, Ekkart Arbeit and Lewis celebrate in Tallinn

You don't become Olympic heptathlon champion without being an incredibly determined competitor.

But even Denise Lewis' biggest fans were impressed by the way she performed at the weekend in her first heptathlon since taking Olympic gold nearly three years ago.

Lewis exceeded expectations by coming second in the European Cup for Combined Events in Tallinn, qualifying for August's World Championships in the process.

Ignore the fact that Lewis gave birth to her daughter Lauryn 15 months ago, and that a foot injury threatened her career for two years after Sydney.

Those are not the reasons why the media presence in the Kadrioru Stadium almost outnumbered paying spectators.

Lewis has been under sustained attack from certain sections of the media since it was revealed earlier his year that she was employing Dr Ekkart Arbeit to oversee her throwing and conditioning work.

Arbeit was head of East German athletics at a time when that country operated a systematic policy of doping, often against its athletes' knowledge or wishes.

He was never charged in a German court, partly because he never directly administered drugs to anyone. But his past has been enough in the eyes of some to taint Lewis.

Although UK Athletics has stood by Lewis and her main coach Frank Dick, several British newspapers have campaigned for Ekkart to be sacked, while Olympic chief Jacques Rogge called her choice "unwise".

Their argument is simple: by associating with a man who was the figurehead for the largest doping programme in sporting history, Lewis is ruining both her image and that of her sport.

It is the same line that was used when world 100m record holder Tim Montgomery and his partner Marion Jones, the Olympic 100m champion, linked up with Ben Johnson's former coach, Charlie Francis.

Lewis was in happy mood after her performance in Tallinn

In that case the athletes' sponsors, Nike, forced the pair to end their relationship with Francis. Lewis is not so easily swayed.

She says she is doing nothing wrong. She would never use banned substances, and is using Arbeit purely for his technical expertise.

Her supporters can also point to a degree of hypocrisy from some of her critics. The Daily Telegraph has led the calls for her to ditch Arbeit, yet employs as two of its columnists Katharine Merry and James Cracknell.

English 400m star Merry is coached by Linford Christie - a man who has actually served a ban for doping - while Cracknell works with Jurgen Grobler, coach to East German rowers when they dominated the sport in the era of the state-run doping programme.

Lewis can use the same defence Montgomery chose when asked about the Francis furore last week.

Montgomery, a committed Christian, pointed out that society rehabilitates criminals. Francis, however, remains a pariah 15 years after Johnson tested positive for steroids at the 1988 Olympics.

As Dick told the BBC last week: "I look at someone's skills first, and didn't consider for a moment judging someone's history from about 15 years ago.

"Since the Berlin Wall came down the individuals have unequivocally condemned what they did in the past."

There is also the role Arbeit played in cleaning up sport in his country after German reunification. He did as much as anyone to help usher in a new, cleaner dawn.

Fresh start, new dangers

But the Arbeit affair is not the only headache for Lewis as she starts her comeback.

France's Eunice Barber, the former world champion, is in far better form than her British rival and, barring disaster, will finish well clear of her at the Worlds next month.

And neither of the two old stagers can currently hold a candle to Sweden's Carolina Kluft.

Kluft on her debt to Denise

The 20-year-old blazed her way to European Championship gold last summer - just weeks after winning the European junior title - and did it while clowning around as if she was at a school sports day.

At the World Indoors in March she again took gold, and racked up a personal best of 6,692 points in finishing well clear of Lewis in Tallinn.

Kluft clearly loves her athletics. To her the heptathlon is more fun than any other event because it allows her to compete in different disciplines.

She pulls silly faces to the crowd, does funny walks and was delighted just to have met her idol Lewis at the weekend.

The contrast with the burdens that her heroine is having to carry could not be greater.