Steele yet to make contact, says coach Mills
DESPITE making a Facebook post yesterday to allay fears over his disappearance, Edino Steele has not contacted his mentor and coach Glen Mills of Racers Track club.
The 28-year-old 400-metre runner Steele, who has been under the guidance of Mills for the last five years, was dropped from the Jamaican team after neither his coach nor the Jamaica Administrative Athletics Association (JAAA) were able to make contact with him for the World Championships training camp in Japan.
Mills, who is also the coach of Usain Bolt, Yohan Blake and Kemar Bailey-Cole, said “no” in response when questioned if he was contacted by Steele.
“Somebody showed me something he posted,” Mills told the Jamaica Observer yesterday evening.
“At this time, I am reserving my comments until I am fully aware of what is happening,” said Mills.
Steele has a personal best of 45.19 seconds achieved in June 2015, which he followed with 45.25s at Jamaica’s Senior Championships, where he finished fourth and was selected to Jamaica’s team to the World Championship.
But following poor performances on the Diamond League circuit, Steele went off the radar somewhat. He recently reached out through his Facebook page, informing fans that he was safe, but needed time to refocus.
“I’m just going thru a ruff time in my life and I need a little space and time for my thoughts to gather,” Steele said in his post.
“I can’t go out there and give 199% on the track… as I always do for ‘team Jamaica’,” he continued.
“Times like these [I] wanna be around my family to help me through this ruff time,” he added.
Steele’s misfortune provided a lucky break for 30-year-old Ricardo Chambers, who was drafted at his expense.
Both have been representing Jamaica since 2007 and Chambers is also at a loss where Steele is concerned.
“I haven’t heard anything about his situation as yet,” he told the Jamaica Observer.
“I’m hoping that he is OK, though,” he added.
Chambers will now join Javon Francis, Rusheen McDonald, Peter Matthews, Jonia McDonald and Dane Hyatt in the 4x400m relay pool.
