JAAA: Pre-tournament camps a must
THE Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) has ensured that there can be no confusion as to whether training camps ahead of this summer’s 2011 IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Daegu, South Korea will be mandatory by including it on the front page of the entry form for next month’s National Senior Championships.
Item 6 of the Conditions for Participation on the entry form for the 2011 National Senior Championships to be held at the National Stadium from June 23-June 26 said: “It is mandatory to attend all training camps and to participate in all official team practices, team meetings, and other required team activities.”
Item 7 states: “Failure to comply with the conditions above including Selection Criteria, may result in the removal from team and/or referral to the Disciplinary Committee.”
The clearly stated rules appears to be a direct result of controversies ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and the 2009 World Championships in Berlin in which several members of the MVP Track and Field Club did not show up for the camps.
They are Shelly Ann Fraser, Asafa Powell, Melaine Walker, Shericka Williams, Brigitte Foster-Hylton aand Kaliese Spencer.
The Stephen Francis-led MVP disputed the JAAA claims that the pre-event camps were mandatory and instead remained at their annual summer base in Italy before joining the rest of the Jamaican team in China and Germany.
Following the dispute in 2008, the athletes who did not show up for the World Champs preparation camp in Nuremberg, Germany in 2009 and were subsequently barred from the Jamaica camp and were only readmitted following a request from International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) president, Lamine Diack to the Jamaica team hierarchy.
According to Diack, the withdrawal of the athletes would reflect badly on the Championships.
Jamaica later went on to capture a record 13 medals in Berlin of which Foster-Hylton, Fraser, Walker and Powell all captured gold in their individual events or relays.
A JAAA disciplinary panel, headed by Chief Justice Lesley Wolfe, in November 2009 ruled that no action should be taken against the six athletes who did not turn up for the camp.
“A sanction was imposed against the offenders and, at the insistence of the president of the IAAF, the sanction was withdrawn. To attempt to revisit the matter would be tantamount to trying them twice,” a letter from the panel addressed to JAAA general secretary, Garth Gayle, stated.
Deadline for entries for the National Championships close on Tuesday, June 14.