Powell and Co face coaching hiccup ahead of Olympics

The Forums Beijing 2008 Coverage
1

Powell and Co face coaching hiccup ahead of Olympics
posted: 2008-08-01 07:54:47

Anthony Foster, Gleaner Writer

Asafa Powell and his MVP Track Club teammates who will represent Jamaica at the Olympics in Beijing starting next Friday may have to begin their preparations without their usual support staff.

The MVP staff, led by head coach Stephen Francis, is yet to secure Chinese visas, and wont before next Tuesday, arriving in Beijing on Wednesday. With a deadline of August 3 (Sunday) for all athletes to report to the training camp in Tianjin, just outside of Beijing, that leaves three days where the athletes will have to train themselves or workout with one of the appointed coaches.

Deadline extension

MVP president Bruce James is requesting a deadline extension to facilitate his staff.

“They are now flying to Hong Kong to receive their Chinese visas, so when they get their visas they can return to Beijing and get to the camp,” James told The Gleaner yesterday.

“We will come to the camp. We will be there. We just can’t get there until the 6th,” added James referring to Francis, assistant coach Paul Francis masseurs Gavin James and Patrick Watson and assistant manager Andre Edwards.

“We need the athletes to stay with the coaching staff, so they can train with the coaches who have been preparing them for the Olympics. I think it’s a reasonable request because we have been asking for this for some time now…this is not something we decided on this morning,” added James, who said they were only notified of a national camp after the Olympic Trials, which was held June 27-29.

However, Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) president Mike Fennell, stood his ground on the August 3 deadline.

“That’s it … It’s not a moving target and August 3 is the deadline for the people to come in (camp),” he said.

Outspoken

When asked what would happen if athletes are not in by the third, Fennell, who earlier approved for the deadline date to be changed from August 1, said: “Then obviously the people don’t want to be part of the team.”

The outspoken Francis had his own opinion on the issue. He said that the camp was put on by the JOA and the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association to ensure that his athletes do not do well.

“They put on this camp only after hearing in February that we were planning to have our own,” Francis was quoted as saying on JamaicaWin.com.

“The athletes believe that their current programme and training (with him) are geared for their success. The athletes are being forced to go to the camp to work with a bunch of high school coaches who have no clue about what they are doing. There is nothing to be achieved there.”

James said he sees this mandatory move as a disadvantage.

“The disadvantage now is, you are going to have a group of athletes who will not have the benefit of their coaches and support staff around them for five or six days leading into the Olympics.”

Final decision

With the JOA staying its ground, James said it’s left up to the athletes to make the final decision.

“We told our athletes, when they land in Beijing, whosoever want to get off the plane and go, can go, we cannot force you to stay with your coach, who have trained and prepared you so far,” he explained while saying nothing would be lost by allowing a deadline extension.

“If it is a matter of relay practice, they will be there by the sixth - track and field doesn’t start until the 15th. If it is a matter of having them there for the opening ceremony, the opening ceremony will be on the eighth. If it’s about adjusting to the time…that’s fine because they are going to be in Hong Kong, which is the same time zone.”

MVP athletes selected to the team are Asafa Powell, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter, Andre Wellington, Markeino Buckley, Sherone Simpson, Shelly-Ann Frazer, Brigitte Foster-Hylton, Melaine Walker and Sherika Williams.

http://sportsjamaica.com/read_article.php?id=13236

2

Why don’t the MVP coaches have a visa yet? Also why do they need a visa and why do they need to fly to Hong Kong to get it?

3

Cant his coach just call him and give him his workouts for these few days. Also I would think he is beginning a 10 day taper on the 5th?

4

It appears that MVP and the Jam Fed have issues.

5

could this mess up powells taper possibly?

6

Thought Franno said he doesnt believe in tapering

7

No doubt what they have can’t exactly be described as “love.” BUT–this was on the USATF (and USOC) website more than six months ago:

USOC Registration

The government of China requires United States citizens to obtain a Chinese Visa to enter China. The United States Olympic Committee (USOC) is required to a submit preliminary entry form, which lists all potential athletes with individual information, to the 2008 Olympic Games Organizing Committee months prior to the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June. This preliminary entry form, along with a digital headshot and electronic copy of your passport will be used to apply for a Chinese Visa. Because of the length of time needed to process China Visas during the Olympic Games, athletes are required to complete a USOC Online Registration Form and USOC Games Forms and submit a digital headshot and an electronic copy of their passport in order to start the visa application process now (at no cost to the athlete).

In order to ensure China Visas and entrance into China, all potential 2008 Olympic Games athletes must complete the required USOC Online Registration Form, USOC Games Forms and submit a digital headshot and an electronic copy of their passport NO LATER THAN FEBRUARY 15, 2008. Any athlete who does not complete the Online Registration Form and submit the required Games Forms, digital headshot and electronic copy of their passport, may not be able to obtain a Chinese Visa and, therefore, be unable to enter China for the Olympics.

Yes, the whole thing’s still there. You can find it here:

http://www.usatf.org/events/2008/OlympicGames/athleteInfo/USOCRegistration.asp

This was not exactly a secret and Franno is not exactly a neophyte at international competition. Why is he (or they) so far behind on this?

8

Why is Franno responsible for his own visa when all the rest of the team is covered? The coach of Jamaica’s only (then) WR holder should have been included before anyone else.
this is no accident.

9

So they’re trying to get rid of him?

10

In the US, taking responsibility for the China visa issue was up to the athlete (or coach/agent). You were told that if you had any prospect of making the US team, YOU needed to get your shit together and get your application materials in. I remember John Smith talking about this something like March.

The situation in Jamaica is probably indeed intentional, but Franno also knew that his athletes were going to Beijing and that he is not exactly the most popular person with the federation.

11

Aparently, visas were obtained by MVP but to enter 3 days later than the fed is now insisting on, hence the problem. I never like the idea of a federation trying to exert control over athletes they don’t train at the last minute- just think of what can happen if they pull stupid relay practices or suggest some different sort of speed work, which can happen. Scary.

12

The other possibility would be that the Jam Fed want’s to force a run-off between 3rd place in the women’s 100 and VCB before Franno can get there to object. Again scary stuff.

13

spending too much time in Aust it sounds like… :eek:

14

run off :confused: :eek:

15

Every fed wants to win medals, VCB would be a sure fire choice for me so they will want to do this for sure. Is this the reason for the whole thing or just co-incidence? I suspect the latter but it works out well as a conspiracy theory!

16

they said the trials would count but they didn’t like the results. If you want to keep flexibility you need to have a policy, such as top two plus one to be selected. that eliminates some of these issues.

17

Another thought about VCB. If she’s out of the 100, it would seem like the 200m is a pretty sure bet unless Felix is playing possum. On the other hand, it may be that the Jam Fed is counting on Felix being WAY off and is thinking double for that reason.

18

http://www.theage.com.au/news/athletics/jam-packed/2008/08/03/1217701854465.html?page=2

Jam Packed
Len Johnson | August 4, 2008

LEADING athletics coach Stephen Francis says it will take a superhuman effort for anyone to beat Asafa Powell at the Beijing Olympics.

With equal certainty, Francis believes the Jamaican Federation may well be as tough an opponent for Powell as his teammate Usain Bolt, or American world champion Tyson Gay.

Francis, who coaches Powell and a stable of top Jamaican and Caribbean sprinters, is fuming that the federation has, as he sees it, sabotaged a planned training camp in Hong Kong and forced Powell and others to go to a team training camp in Tianjin Province, near Beijing.

The group were met by Jamaican consular officials as they were in transit through Beijing on Friday en route to Hong Kong and told they had to leave the flight and go to the training camp. Michael Frater, silver medallist in the 100 metres at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki, had already gone through to his connecting flight.

Frater trained at Hong Kong University for two days but left for Tianjin yesterday, the deadline for the Jamaicans to report.

As well as Powell and Frater, Francis coaches other top Jamaican hopes in Brigitte Foster-Hylton, one of Sally McLellan’s rivals in the 100 metres hurdles, 400 metres hurdler Melaine Walker, and Trinidad sprinter Marc Burns.

Francis said yesterday morning that the federation had not had a camp when he made it known his squad would be setting up their own base, then it announced there would be one and, moreover, that it would be mandatory to attend. One of the advantages of being in Hong Kong was that he would have access to the Australian medical team, who were world-class, he said, while he had been unhappy with the treatment provided to some of his athletes with the Jamaican team last year.

Francis said: “The years I have been involved in the camps and the athletes have had an extended stay are the years when the athletes have done worse. They have performed below my expectations. The years they have done very well are when we have done our own training and arrived at the meeting two or three days before.”

Francis said that he was trying to establish some common ground with the federation, “but I have not been successful so far”.

The dispute over the training camp came to a head a day before it was announced that fellow Jamaican Bolt, who took Powell’s world record earlier this year, would run the 100 and 200 metres in Beijing. “He will run both,” Bolt’s coach, Glen Mills, said in Beijing.

Francis said yesterday that Bolt’s world-record performance in May this year had galvanised Powell. After Powell lost to American Tyson Gay and Bahamian Derrick Atkins in Osaka last year, Francis said that the hugely talented sprinter had to take more responsibility for his own performances and become more professional. Asked if Powell had progressed in those areas, Francis said that losing the world record had made the difference.

“Bolt ensured that that happened. Since May (Asafa) has been almost reformed. It has done wonders for his performance, his concern for things that he is supposed to be concerned about.”

He said that provided Powell retained this approach “then, now, and for the future, I think we will see what he is really capable of. Because so far I don’t think we have seen it”.

Powell recently beat Bolt narrowly in Stockholm and completed his racing preparation with a 9.82 seconds win in Monaco last week. Francis said he was coming into Beijing better than he had ever been.

“I think that Asafa has not gone into one of these meets in this kind of shape. He, technically, is making very few mistakes right now.”

Francis fears Powell is going into an environment where the Jamaican management want Bolt to win the 100, but expressed hope that Powell could overcome it as he had overcome other injury setbacks this year.

“He’s in great, great shape and it’s going to take a superhuman effort to beat him,” Francis said. “Assuming that we solve these latest issues, we should be able to look forward to good performances, even if they may not be as good as I hoped.”

Francis said yesterday that Bolt’s world-record performance in May this year had galvanised Powell. After Powell lost to American Tyson Gay and Bahamian Derrick Atkins in Osaka last year, Francis said that the hugely talented sprinter had to take more responsibility for his own performances and become more professional. Asked if Powell had progressed in those areas, Francis said that losing the world record had made the difference.

“Bolt ensured that that happened. Since May (Asafa) has been almost reformed. It has done wonders for his performance, his concern for things that he is supposed to be concerned about.”

He said that provided Powell retained this approach “then, now, and for the future, I think we will see what he is really capable of. Because so far I don’t think we have seen it”.

Powell recently beat Bolt narrowly in Stockholm and completed his racing preparation with a 9.82 seconds win in Monaco last week. Francis said he was coming into Beijing better than he had ever been.

“I think that Asafa has not gone into one of these meets in this kind of shape. He, technically, is making very few mistakes right now.”

Francis fears Powell is going into an environment where the Jamaican management want Bolt to win the 100, but expressed hope that Powell could overcome it as he had overcome other injury setbacks this year.

“He’s in great, great shape and it’s going to take a superhuman effort to beat him,” Francis said. “Assuming that we solve these latest issues, we should be able to look forward to good performances, even if they may not be as good as I hoped.”

19

I hope Franno is speaking the truth and this questionable mandatory camp doesn’t ruin it. His words remind me of the echoes of Mike Tyson’s trainers late in his career (Mike is serious and training hard this time…really). Hopefully the outcome will differ from those contests.

20

i got from this article that, basically the medical team from the jamaican camp last year WC 07, was shit. So he plans his own camp this year to not get shitty treatment again, but now maybe they’ll be getting the same shitty treatment again, since this mandatory jaaa camp.