:mad: KINGSTON, Jamaica, March 3 (AFP) - Donald Quarrie, oneof Jamaica’s most revered athletes, lashed out againstthe Jamaican Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) forits handling of overseas-based Jamaican athletes.
Quarrie also said that Merlene Ottey’s decision to runfor Slovenia was as a result of her frustration withJamaican officials.
I have noticed that once a Jamaican athlete residesoverseas, they seem to get a totally different treatmentfrom those athletes who resides in Jamaica,'' Quarriesaid. Athletes that are based overseas are not given therespect they deserve and that needs to change.’’
Quarrie, who won the 200m gold medal in the 1976Montreal Olympics, said the JAAA has tried to remove himfrom the forefront of the nation’s athletics by advisingathletes against working with him.
I've heard that I was telling the athletes too muchbut if that's their problem then so be it, because I dobelieve that once you are an athlete you have to rightto know what to expect from your association,'' Quarriesaid. I have had my own problems with the administrationbut I hope that very soon they will realise that we canstill make a contribution to track and field in thiscountry.
Personally, athletes have approached me saying thatthey were advised by officials of the JAAA that theyshould not allow me to help them with their preparation.I did some fact finding on my own and found that,officials in the association did advise against me ...blacklisting me.'' Quarrie said Ottey's unhappiness with the JAAAprompted her to run for another nation. What happened with Merlene Ottey should never havehappened, but Ottey felt after a while that the JAAA didnot care about her despite the things that she has donefor Jamaica and she just decided to move on,’’ Quarriesaid.
``I have a daughter who loves Jamaica and wants torepresent the country. But if the JAAA continues totreat athletes with this level of disregard I would behard pressed to advise her to represent Jamaica.’’
Are there any Jamaican Athletes still living and training in JA? All the athletes I know showing up in international meets moved to the US in their teens, live and train in the US and only fly home to visit their mom.
The interesting thing is that US Jamaicans keep representing Jamaica while most UK and CAN based Jamaicans represent the UK and CAN.
Another fact is, that almost all top UK and CAN sprinters of the last decade have their origins in JA!
BUDAPEST, Hungary (CMC) - James Beckford, Davian Clarke, Maurice Wignall and Germaine Mason won medals for Jamaica at the 10th IAAF World Indoor Championship yesterday evening, although Mason was hospitalised after suffering an injury.
Beckford, the 1996 Olympic silver medallist, posted a season’s best 8.31 metres to get second in the men’s long jump behind American winner Savante Stringfellow (8.40).
Wignall lowered his national record to 7.48 seconds to get third in the men’s 60-metre hurdles, won by defending champion Allen Johnson of the United States in a championship record 7.36 seconds, with China’s Xiang Liu (7.43) second.
Mason, the reigning Pan Am Games champion, cleared 2.27 metres to share third in the men’s high jump, as Sweden’s Stefan Holm repeated as champion at 2.35 metres.
Attempting to clear 2.32 metres, Mason suffered an apparent foot injury and was taken to hospital.
Meanwhile, Alleyne Francique won Grenada’s first ever global track and field title when he captured the 400-metre gold.
Francique fought off Jamaican Davian Clarke down the stretch to win in a season’s best 45.88 seconds, to pilot a six-medal haul by English-speaking Caribbean athletes on the second day of the three-day meet.
The day’s action also produced two world-record performances - from Russians Tatyana Lebedeva (triple jump) and Yelena Isinbeyeva (pole vault).
The 27 year-old Francique, who won CAC gold and Pan Am Games bronze last year, got to the 200-metre cross-over point just ahead of Clarke, and repelled a determined challenge from the Jamaican to become the first Caribbean men’s champion at the World Indoors in nine years.
Clarke finished second in 45.92 seconds and Gary Kikaya, of Congo, took third in 46.30.
The region also medalled in the women’s 400-metre race, with Bahamian Tonique Williams chasing the Russians Tatyana Nazarova and Olesya Krasnomovets to the finish.
Nazarova won in a championship record 50.19, followed by Krasnomovets (50.69), and Williams, who logged a Bahamas national record 50.87 seconds.
Russian Yaroslav Rybakov claimed the silver with a season’s best 2.32 metres.
Lebedeva set a new world record of 15.36 metres in the women’s triple jump, in which Jamaican Trecia Smith finished fourth with a national record 14.71 metres.
And Isinbeyeva lifted the women’s pole vault record to 4.86 metres, as she defeated American Stacy Dragila (4.81) and Russia’s previous record holder Svetlana Feofanova (4.70).
There will be only one Caribbean representative in the 200-metre finals today.
Bahamian Dominic Demeritte, a bronze medallist last year in Birmingham, won his semi-final in 20.75 seconds, to be the second fastest qualifier, but Jamaican Juliet Campbell withdrew from the women’s semi-final.
Campbell, the 2001 World Indoor champion, had advanced from her morning heat with a second-place finish in 23.51 seconds, but withdrew from the final after feeling discomfort in her hamstring.
Beckford lives and trains in Germany, for example. And Donavan Bailey (born Jamaican, too) obviously enjoyed his interviews with so many Carribean athletes…