JAMES ... MVP athletes have played a role in at least five Jamaican national records

The MVP track and field club hit the headlines with a bang following Asafa Powell's sensational world-record run in the 100 metres. At a press conference on Thursday, club president Bruce James gave details of the club's history, its structure and philosophy. The following is an edited version of his statement.

Quite often I am asked what does the acronym MVP mean? Per the constitution of the club the official name is "maximising velocity and power track and field club." For those who thought it meant most valuable player or players, I find the confusion quite in order.

Who founded MVP and when? MVP was founded in the summer of 1999 by Stephen Francis, David Noel, Paul Francis and Bruce James.

What brought us together? Well, there were a number of factors:

1 Wolmer's Boys' school, where we all were integrally involved in the track and field programme for a number of years.

2 A love for the sport of track and field, and

3.The belief that Stephen Francis would achieve what he said he could, which is the development of world-class athletes beyond the junior level.

This was not as much of a stretch as you might imagine, as
Stephen had already shown that he could take a Wolmer's track team that could not crack the top 10 at Boys' Champs to Number Two along with numerous team and individual champions at the Penn relays and/or representing Jamaica at many junior meets.

So what was the purpose of MVP? Again we look to the constitution of the club. Inherent to our objectives was "to give Jamaican track and field athletes a post-high school option for training in Jamaica".

Traditionally, a number of Jamaica's high school athletes would follow the path that led to a track and field scholarship to a university or junior college in the United States of America, which resulted in varying degrees of success.
We felt then and are convinced now that giving our athletes an additional choice in terms of pursuing their athletic and academic dreams was the right thing to do.

Let me make it abundantly clear: MVP, its directors and members are not in any way anti-USA-university track and field scholarships. In fact, we believe that the USA-scholarship system can play a positive role for some student-athletes from Jamaica. Similarly, remaining in Jamaica after high school is not necessarily the best option for all Jamaican athletes.

To underscore this point, the fact is a number of MVP's most successful athletes have gone the route of the USA-college system while remaining within the MVP programme or returning to the MVP programme. Key examples would be Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Michael Frater. Both received and accepted track scholarships to the USA and are now key members of MVP.

At this time I should stop to pay particular homage to Brigitte, as she has the distinction of being the first ever MVP athlete. In fact, the almost immediate success that we enjoyed with this superb athlete as an Olympic finalist in the 2000 Sydney Olympics gave us the inspiration to continue on this journey even through the often challenging periods.

We have grown from one, then little-known athlete, to a club with almost 50 members, of whom five are elite (that is they are or have been IAAF world-ranked in the top 10 in their respective events). Importantly, the majority of our members are university students or university graduates.

What are some of the successes of MVP? MVP athletes have played a role in at least five Jamaican national records, including: The national record for the men's high jump 2.34 metres, Germaine Mason, the national record for the 4 x 100 metres for women, 41.73 Sherone Simpson, the 4 x 100 metres for men, 38.20 Lindel Frater (Michael Frater's big brother), the women's 100m hurdles 12.45 seconds, Brigitte Foster, and of course the men's national record for the 100 metres by Asafa Powell.

Add to this a few Olympic finalists, a few medals in the IAAF world indoor championships, IAAF world outdoor championships and the Olympics and the world record in the men's 100 metres, and we are confident in our assertion that we have lived up to our mandate of developing world-class athletes here in Jamaica.

A few words on the founding members of MVP:
David Noel, the secretary of the club and truly the MVP patriarch, is a level one IAAF-certified technical official. He accomplished this certification with a distinction.

Like David, I too am a level one certified technical official, and like David I also received my certification with a distinction.

Paul Francis, our assistant coach and the treasurer of the club, is not only a level one certified technical official (also with a distinction), he went beyond that and is now an IAAF Area Technical Official (ATO), one of only two so certified in Jamaica.

Stephen Francis, our renowned head coach and vice president is a level one certified IAAF coach.

Per rule # 4, subsection 1, clause "a", found on page 18 of the IAAF 2004 - 2005 competition rules, as president of the MVP track and field club I declare that MVP is a fully paid up member of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association and remains in good standing with the association as a voting member.

In closing I trust that I have been able to share some insight into the background of the MVP club and its members, and commit to Jamaica that with God's help and the tangible support of corporate and non-corporate Jamaica, we will continue to maximise the velocity and power of our athletes now and in the future.

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