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MVP STARS OUT!
Training camp snub disqualifies athletes
By HG HELPS Editor-at-Large
Monday, August 10, 2009
It appears unlikely that some of Jamaica's top athletes will represent the island at the World Championships in Athletics, which starts thisweekend in the historic German city of Berlin.
Four of the big names, Olympic 100 metres champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, former world 100 metres record-holder Asafa Powell, 400 metres runnerSherika Williams and sprint hurdler Brigitte Foster Hylton, all members of the Maximising Velocity Power (MVP) Track Club have not shown up at the mandatorypre-World Championships training camp in Nuremberg, Germany, making them ineligible to compete at the championships.
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| Asafa Powell and Shelly-Ann Fraser |
Reports have been surfacing - even more so since Williams posted a message on her social network website, Facebook, stating that: "Oh, well,the JAAA say we can't run at World Championships, because we did not attend the training camp," - that the four were automatically axed from thesquad.
Inside athletics sources told the Observer late last night that the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) to which the JAAAreports, had insisted that all athletes selected should attend the camp for, among other things, providing urine and blood samples for drug testing.
"It is the same foolishness some of these athletes did in China last year when they said they did not know what was taking place," anathletics source told the Observer.
President of the JAAA Howard Aris, who is due to leave for Berlin today, said that he was not aware that the Jamaica team's management inGermany had taken the decision to clean house.
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| Sherika Williams and Brigitte Foster Hylton |
"I have not been informed of this," Aris said. "The IAAF had contacted the JAAA seeking information on whether or not we weregoing to have a camp, where the camp would be, where the team would be staying etc.
"I wrote to (athletes agent) Paul Doyle telling him what the IAAF wanted to do. When we (the JAAA) called to find out where the athleteswere going to be staying, we were told that they would be going straight to Berlin. I told Doyle that the camp was mandatory, and if they don't go to thecamp, they could not compete," Aris said.
Doyle, who is the agent for Powell, Williams and Foster Hylton, had told the Observer on Friday that he did not know that the camp was arequirement.
He said that the athletes would not be attending the six-day camp, which started last Thursday.
"The JAAA has never once sent a message to me that the camp was mandatory. Only the media has been telling me that it's mandatory."Doyle said.
There was controversy associated with Jamaica's participation at last year's Olympic Games in Beijing, China, when athletes from the MVPclub arrived late for a pre-Olympic training camp in Tianjin, China, exposing more of the bad blood that has existed between members of the MVP executive andthe JAAA.
Last night, second vice-president of the JAAA Dr Warren Blake joined his president in underlining the importance of attending the camp.
"It was not a secret that if they don't turn up at the camp, they would automatically be disqualified," Blake said.
It was not clear about the status of another MVP athlete, Olympic champion hurdler Melaine Walker, who had also not attended the camp up toyesterday.
President of the MVP club Bruce James could not be reached for a comment at press time.
