MVP banned from Berlin?

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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 this weekend 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 runner Sherika Williams and sprint hurdler Brigitte Foster Hylton, all members of the Maximising Velocity Power (MVP) Track Club have not shown up at the mandatory pre-World Championships training camp in Nuremberg, Germany, making them ineligible to compete at the championships.

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 the squad.

Inside athletics sources told the Observer late last night that the International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) to which the JAAA reports, 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,” an athletics 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 in Germany had taken the decision to clean house.

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 were going 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 athletes were 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 the camp, 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 a requirement.

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 MVP club 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 and the 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 to yesterday.

President of the MVP club Bruce James could not be reached for a comment at press time.

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I doubt they will prevent the MVP athletes from competing for this, but by my count, that is 8 sprinters of their national team who might not compete in Berlin for various reasons. With Bolt & Stuart, they still have decent chances to grab both 100m medals.

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Jaaa is a mess

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Word from Europe is that Frater was the only MVP athlete to attend the camp. That’s unofficial though.

I reckon this story has a fair distance to travel yet even if/when JAAA backs down - under pressure from the Jamaican prime minister??

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BY KAYON RAYNOR, Senior staff reporter raynork@jamaicaobserver.com

Saturday, August 08, 2009

SOME members of the MVP Track Club have failed to arrive for Jamaica’s mandatory pre-World Championships camp in Nuremberg, Germany, which started on Thursday, reigniting the controversy which rocked last year’s Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA)-organised pre-Olympic camp in Tianjin, China.

POWELL. during a training session ahead of the Beijing Olympics in China last year. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)
Paul Doyle, the agent of former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell, Olympic 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams, and two-time world 100m hurdle medallist Brigitte Foster-Hylton, yesterday confirmed that his clients would not be attending the six-day camp.

“Well, they’re training in Italy and receiving treatment from the clinic there and getting their training in (done) there and there’s no reason for them to go to the camp early, and to be honest, JAAAs 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, noting that another of his clients, Michael Frater, the 2005 world 100m silver medallist, would be arriving at the JAAA-run camp today.

“Frater arrives there tomorrow (today) for the camp because I think he’s supposed to be there for relay practice from what I understand, and the others (Asafa, Shericka and Foster-Hylton) will go straight into Berlin on the 11th,” he added.

Asked whether MVP head coach Stephen Francis was notified that the JAAA camp was mandatory, Doyle replied: “I can only speak for myself. I was never notified that it was mandatory.” He added that another of his clients, 400m hurdler Markino Buckley, did arrive at the JAAA’s camp on Thursday.

FOSTER-HYLTON. will go straight into Berlin on Tuesday. (Photo: Paul Reid)
The other MVP athletes, who the Observer could confirm arrived in the camp on Thursday, were Christine Day and Anneisha McLaughlin. It was unclear whether Olympic 100m and 400m hurdles champions Shelly-Ann Fraser and Melaine Walker would be attending the camp.

When the Observer contacted MVP president Bruce James yesterday afternoon for a comment on the matter, he could not shed any further light on the issue: “I have been trying to contact my technical staff in Europe to find out what the status is, but I’ve been unable to get through to them based on the time of day… because they are so many hours ahead of us (in Jamaica).”

Head of Jamaica’s delegation for the 12th IAAF World Championship in Berlin, Trevor ‘TC’ Campbell, shied away from confirming whether members of the MVP Track Club had indeed failed to arrive at the camp on the prescribed date.

WILLIAMS. will go straight into Berlin on Tuesday. (Photo: Bryan Cummings)

“I can’t tell you anything else, you’ve spoken to the agent; that’s what he’s telling you… I’m not here to counter that, counteract it. I’m not here to add or subtract anything from it,” Campbell told the Observer from his room at the Herzog Park Hotel in Nuremberg yesterday.

The Jamaican team leader further fumed: “You can check what you want to check, I’m not preventing you from checking. I’m telling you that I’m not saying anything to you… We had an agreement, I told you straight that I’m afraid of speaking to you and I’m serious and that still holds. I will no longer speak to you.”

Pressed to say whether the camp was mandatory, Campbell, a past Olympian, insisted. “Sir, I told you that I will no longer speak to you. Now the next time I say that I’m going to hang the phone up!”

As a result, the Observer was unable to ascertain whether any other athlete outside of the MVP Track Club in Jamaica’s team had failed to arrive in the camp as mandated by the JAAA.

On June 22, JAAA president Howard Aris, who had indicated that top coaches, including Glen Mills and Stephen Francis, were consulted during the selection process for the camp venue, said he believed that things would go much smoother this summer as most of the athletes will be based in Europe in the lead up to the 12th IAAF Championships in Berlin.

“They (athletes) are due in on the sixth (of August). They will be notified the moment the team has been selected and we’ll make an announcement,” Aris said at the time.

Last summer, several MVP athletes, including Powell, did not arrive on time at the JAAA’s mandatory pre-Olympic camp in Tianjin, sparking discontent within the Jamaican team, including a war or words between Francis and the management team.

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Even if they are allowed to compete in the end, the psychological effects of this uncertainty can’t be good for the athletes.

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Frater reports to training camp

… but jury still out on attendance of MVP athletes

BY KAYON RAYNOR Senior staff reporter raynork@jamaicaobserver.com

Sunday, August 09, 2009

IT’S still unclear whether MVP Track Club members Asafa Powell, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Melaine Walker, Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Shericka Willams will attend Jamaica’s mandatory pre-World Championships Camp in Nuremberg, Germany.

Frater (foreground) in Nuremburg for relay practice, but it’s unclear whether Powell (background) will turn up.
The only MVP athletes to arrive on time at the training base at the Herzog Park Hotel on August 6 were Markino Buckley, Christine Day and Anneisha McLaughlin.

This reignited the controversy which rocked last year’s Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA)-organised pre-Olympic camp in Tianjin, China.

President of the University of Technoloy (UTech)-based club, Bruce James, told the Sunday Observer yesterday that the decision as to whether the remaining athletes would turn up to the six-day camp rests with head coach Stephen Francis.

“That decision is left to the head of the MVP technical team, Stephen Francis,” James stated.

The hotel staff confirmed that 2005 world 100m silver medallist Michael Frater arrived in Nuremberg yesterday, as was promised by his agent Paul Doyle a day earlier.

Meanwhile, James believes all must be done to ensure Jamaica maximise on its full potential at these global championships.

“It’s time to put Jamaica first; not the JAAA’s first, not MVP first. Jamaica first. And to put Jamaica first, it means doing what’s in the best interest of the athletes,” James added.

On Friday Doyle - the agent of former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell, Olympic 400m silver medallist Shericka Williams and two-time world 100m hurdle medallist Brigitte Foster-Hylton - confirmed his clients would not be attending the camp.

“… They’re training in Italy and receiving treatment from the clinic there and getting their training in… and there’s no reason for them to go to the camp early, and to be honest, JAAAs 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.

The Sunday Observer was unable to reach any member of Jamaica’s management team at the Herzog Park Hotel for an update on the situation yesterday.

On Friday, Jamaica’s head of delegation/team manager to the 12th IAAF World Championship in Berlin, Trevor ‘TC’ Campbell, shied away from confirming whether members of the MVP Track Club had indeed failed to arrive at the camp on the prescribed date.

“I can’t tell you anything else. You’ve spoken to the agent; that’s what he’s telling you… I’m not here to counter that, counteract it. I’m not here to add or subtract anything from it,” Campbell said.

As a result, the Sunday Observer was unable to ascertain whether any other athlete outside the MVP Track Club had failed to arrive at camp as mandated by the JAAA.

On June 22, JAAA president Howard Aris, who had indicated that top coaches, including Glen Mills and Francis, were consulted during the selection process for the camp venue, said he believed things would go much smoother this summer as most of the athletes will be based in Europe in the lead-up to the Championships.

“They (athletes) are due in on the sixth (of August). They will be notified the moment the team has been selected and we’ll make an announcement,” Aris said at the time.

Last summer, several MVP athletes, including Powell, did not arrive on time at the pre-Olympic camp in Tianjin, sparking discontent within the team, including a war of words between Francis and the management team.

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This goes to an area of discussion we won’t get into here, other than to say that every athlete must provide their whereabouts at all times to the IAAF and a camp is not needed for that purpose BUT it also goes into the taper discussion and what should be done.
NEVER should athletes be forced to leave their coach one day earlier than required.
NEVER should an athlete’s training be changed by another coach right before a major competition.
NEVER should relay sessions be left to the end and then athletes are sacrificed from their individual event by coaches who have never worked with them and know nothing about their training. Injuries are the inevitable result for some- just ask Fasuba and Pognon!!
The point of a training camp is to have optimal conditions in advance of the games and to ensure that jet-lag is avoided.
MVP already have a European staging area close by.
This is a power struggle and blame shifting tactic by JAAA, nothing else.

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So why would JAAA be doing this?

I’m only a casual observer but JA is on top of the sprinting world right now, everybody is looking to them. Why would you go about shooting yourself in the foot?

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So what’s the deal? Are they in or out? Or do I have to tune in Saturday to find out?

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There is something fishy in all of this. Doyle claimed that he was never advised about the camp being mandatory. For argument sake let’s take it as such but then again;

This reignited the controversy which rocked last year’s Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA)-organised pre-Olympic camp in Tianjin, China.

If they already had a similar experience with JAAA from a year ago I find it hard to believe that Francis and Doyle were absolutely unaware or unprepared for a possibility of a similar scenario, again.

If they honestly did not count that this kind of a problem would resurface again - it’s plain naive. Knowing how admin staff and bureaucrats, in general, act you would have to make sure you had it all covered and that your athletes are under optimal conditions before such a big meet.

Unreal!

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It is fishy alright. If the JAAA had made it mandatory, it should be a simple matter for them to produce the document they sent out to all potential members and groups.
OH? You say there is no document?
But you said you notified everyone and spelled out the consequence of non-attendance?
If a policy is “spelled out”, the spelling must be on paper or in an E-mail. Hell, it could be on papyrus or written with a stylus on a clay tablet for that matter!
Where is it?
And how convenient that all this just happens to come out the same day the panel releases its decision to clear the 5 positives. When in doubt, shunt the bad news to the back pages by finding a distraction and casting aspersions on the one Jamaican group that had none of the positives.
MVP is acutely aware of training camp issues with the JAAA, which is exactly why they are doing everything to stay away from them. After all the fumbling and bumbling and confusion and favoritism you’ve just seen eminating from them, can you not see why?

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This whole situation stinks. How could the JAAA give the all-“clear” to these athletes? Surely the IAAF must step in now, especially since JADCO has appealed against the JAAA verdict.

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And how convenient that all this just happens to come out the same day the panel releases its decision to clear the 5 positives. When in doubt, shunt the bad news to the back pages by finding a distraction and casting aspersions on the one Jamaican group that had none of the positives.
MVP is acutely aware of training camp issues with the JAAA, which is exactly why they are doing everything to stay away from them.

I see, I see. Very interesting :eek:

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Four Jamaican athletes cleared by doping panel
Tue Aug 11, 2009 7:09am IST Email | Print | Share| Single Page[-] Text [+]
By Horace Helps

KINGSTON (Reuters) - Four Jamaican athletes who tested positive for a stimulant at June’s national championships were cleared by a tribunal hearing their cases on Monday.

The panel decided the stimulant methylxanthine found in the test samples of Yohan Blake, Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence and Marvin Anderson was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) list of prohibited substances.

“Therefore the athletes were not liable under the WADA code,” Kent Gammon, chairman of the disciplinary committee of the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission, told reporters.

Gammon said the athletes ingested the stimulant in the form of capsules.

“They told the committee that they had done the checks that were necessary with the product and found that it was safe to consume,” he said.

Gammon said lawyers for the four had presented "unassailable evidence and added: “We therefore upheld submissions from the attorneys, that the athletes had no case to answer.”

The committee earlier had cleared Commonwealth Games 100 metres champion Sheri-Ann Brooks.

She also tested positive for the stimulant but the panel ruled the anti-doping commission had mishandled her second sample.

The world athletics championships begin in Berlin on Aug. 15.

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The issue in the dismissals is that JADCO says (in its appeal document released to media today) that the Montreal lab found 4-methyl-2 hexanamine in the five athletes’ samples and the JAAA panel dismissed the charges based on them having a different, more benign substance of the methylxanthines group (such as guarano or caffeine or the stuff they stick into RedBull drinks)…

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August 10, 2009

Asafa’s coach Francis hits back
1,628 views at TrackAlerts

Kingston – World-renowned track and field coach Stephen Francis is convinced the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) is out to sabotage him and the success of his athletes.

On Monday, reports surfaced that five MVP athletes, former world 100m record holder Asafa Powell, Olympics Games champions Shelly-Ann Fraser (100m) and Melaine Walker (400m hurdles), Shericka Williams, winner of the Olympics 400m silver medal, and national 100m hur-dles record holder Brigitte Foster-Hylton, all coached by Francis, have been dropped from Jamaica’s World Championships team because they failed to report for last Thursday’s mandatory training camp in Nuremberg, Germany.

It was to this that [b]Francis responded.
“I am convinced that the job of the JAAA executive, most of them, is to try sabotage me and the success that I have with my athletes,” he said in an interview with Irie FM.

“I think that everything they do, they designed to do it and I have to be very, very wary of what they do,” he continued.[/b]

When contacted, President of the JAAA, Howard Aris was asked about Francis’ comments and about the possibility of the organisation working against a particular coach. “Certainly not,” said Aris.

“I don’t see why they look at a coach of my reputation and want to tell me how to prepare my athletes. What right do they have to tell me how to prepare my athletes,” Francis snapped.

The coach explained the reason behind his decision not to attend the pre-World Championships camp.

[b]“Every time they come up with a camp so far, they have chosen a very inferior location. This one, for example, has no weights room, the track has no hurdles or other requirements,” he said.

According to Francis, hurdlers would have “to walk down the road to an old track to practise”.
[/b]

Jamaica’s technical director, Donald Quarrie, could not be reached to comment on the facility in Nuremberg.

[b]Francis’ athletes, minus Michael Frater, Anneisha McLaughlin, Christine Day and Markino Buckley, who are already in the camp, were given up to noon yesterday to report or face being dropped from the team.

But up to press time, there was no indication as to whether the athletes had joined the camp.[/b]

The group’s original plan was to head straight into the team’s village in Berlin today.

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http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/jamaica-in-drugs-backflip/story-e6frexni-1225760382841

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http://www.sportinglife.com/others/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=others/09/08/11/ATHLETICS_Jamaica.html

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According to the website of the German athletics association (http://www.leichtathletik.de/index.php?NavID=1&SiteID=28&NewsID=23868), IAAF general secretary Pierre Weiss has confirmed that Jamaica has asked for the names of the six MVP athletes to be removed from the starting lists. The IAAF has asked them to clarify the situation, but if the decision is not reversed by Thursday 12pm Asafa and co are out.