BIRMINGHAM, England — With the exception of Maurice Smith, the athletes who are already in the Jamaican pre-Olympic camp here in Birmingham are healthy and ready to start competition when track and field gets underway on August 3 at the London Olympic Games.

While the JAAA staff here was still to confirm Smith's non-participation, the athlete posted on his Facebook page early yesterday that he would not be taking part after the Jamaica Observer had broken the story a day earlier.

Yesterday, the management of the team reported that to their knowledge all the athletes who were in the camp were healthy.

A number of athletes were still to arrive at the camp, while others who were taking part in several meets all over Europe were in and out of the camp with the permission of the management staff.

Three athletes from the MVP camp — Christine Day, Latoya Greaves and Rushane McDonald — all arrived on Saturday evening, the Observer learnt.

Don Quarrie, Technical Leader of the track and field team, said that with the exception of the one day (Wednesday) when they had issues with the rain, "the athletes have been training very well and the coaches are working diligently".

"We must commend (the coaches) as they go out there every day, sometimes twice a day and they are so into it that the athletes are getting proper supervision," said a Quarrie, a 200m Olympic champion.

Most of the athletes, he said, came to the camp with their own workout programmes "and the coaches will supervise and it's working beautifully". Quarrie said the "the track is ideal and we have high expectations that they will do their best".

While Maurice Wilson is the head coach and Maurice Westney the field events coach, the other coaches, Bertland Cameron and Fitz Coleman, helped out in whatever areas they could.

Additionally, a number of personal coaches have also been allowed to take part in the preparation.