MOSCOW, Russia (AFP) — The Jamaican athletics team is focusing on the “positive side of life” in the wake of a doping scandal that has rocked track and field, according to 200m medal hopeful Warren Weir.

In the run-up to the World Athletics Championships that get under way tomorrow, positive tests for banned substances by Weir’s esteemed teammates Asafa Powell, Veronica Campbell-Brown and Sherone Simpson, and separately American Tyson Gay, sent shockwaves through the sport.

But Weir insisted that the Jamaican team members were coping with their absence, notably of former world record holder Powell, a 4x100m relay gold medallist at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and one of the four fastest men over 100m in history.

“We’re a pretty young team and we’re coping. There has to be youngsters to come up,” said Weir, who claimed a shock 200m bronze at the London Olympics behind winner Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake in a Jamaican 1-2-3.

“We’re just glad to have a young team that’s moving up through the ranks.”

Weir denied that the team felt overawed by increased expectations on the track following the three recent positive tests.

“There’s no pressure at all. We like to look at the positive side of life, we don’t let negative news get the best of us. We try to stay on the clear path and keep a steady head,” the 23-year-old said.

Weir trains under Glen Mills alongside Bolt and Blake, who has pulled out of the Worlds with injury, and he admitted that the former’s presence was welcome in the sometime pressure- cooker environment of professional sprinting.

“Bolt takes the pressure off me by being there,” he said. “I can just go out there and focus on myself, running my race to my expectations.

“He’s also taught me how not to overdo it in training.”

Weir added: “I’m pretty relaxed going into the championships. The atmosphere’s good and there’s sunshine, I’m just gearing up to August 16 when I first compete.

“Gone are the days when there’s just one Jamaican going for the podium. The competition is intense and very exciting, and the 200m is one of the events people zone in on.

“I’m looking to get higher up the podium than London, hopefully one or maybe two places better, who knows?”

Weir said he had made massive improvements on and off the track since his shock podium showing in the British capital.

“I’ve improved on the turn and strength-wise. I’m much stronger now than before. I’m running a more compact race now, a more together race,” he said.