Francis hints at Fraser-Pryce staying put at MVP
It appears that the rift between MVP Head Coach Stephen Francis and his star athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is mending, which could see the two-time Olympic 100m champion remaining at the club after all.
Francis, who returned to the island on Tuesday night accompanied by six members of his powerful MVP club, told the Jamaica Observer that things seem to be changing.
“I don’t know if I can say anything, but from what I am hearing, it looks as if things are not as clear-cut as they were before,” declared Francis in reference to statements he made during the Olympic Games that Fraser-Pryce seemed to have lost faith in his programme.
“Coaches of the disappointed people, like myself, have to take the blame and I accept full blame for Shelly-Ann not performing the way she expected to,” Francis was quoted as saying in August.
But having coached Fraser-Pryce since 2007, Francis also pointed out that too big a deal was being made of the possibility of Fraser-Pryce changing coach. Now, he says, it’s not so clear that one of the most successful partnerships in track and field history will come to an end.
“It’s foggy, it’s cloudy. It seemed clear-cut back in Rio, but it doesn’t seem as clear-cut now,” Francis reiterated.
“We will see what happens. People think that everybody is going to see things in a different light, so I am just waiting to see,” he added.
Francis, who is seen as a hard- nosed-dictator by many, has led Fraser-Pryce to back-to-back 100m Olympic titles in 2008 and 2012. He also guided her to three 100m World Championships titles in 2009, 2013 and 2015. She also copped the 200m World Championships title in 2013 and became the first woman to win three gold medals at a global championships when she won the 100 metres, 200 metres, and anchored the Jamaican 4x100m team to gold at the same World Athletic Championships in Moscow in 2013.
Francis is one of, if not the most successful coach, having led his athletes to numerous Olympic and World Championships titles since the inception of the MVP track club, some 17 years ago in 1999.
