You know, it's a downright disgrace when as a people, we as Jamaicans, can't solve our own problems and have to depend on an international entity to knock some sense into our brains.
Background
Jamaicans got bad news this morning when we heard that the JAAAs had submitted a letter to the IAAF, requesting that the names of six (6) MVP athletes be stricken off the list of those set to compete in the World Championships, starting on Saturday.
The JAAAs (Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association) is the governing body for athletics in Jamaica. The IAAF (International Amateur Athletics Federation) is the world athletics governing body.
MVP is a Jamaican track club whose head coach, Stephen Francis, is in charge of several star Jamaican athletes, including Asafa Powell (the 1st Jamaican world record holder at the 100m), Melaine Walker (gold medalist in the 400m hurdles at the 2008 Olympics), Brigitte Foster-Hylton (2006 Commonwealth gold medalist in the 100m hurdles) and Shelly-Ann Fraser (Gold medalist in the 100m at the 2008 Olympics).
For whatever reasons, Stephen Francis and the JAAAs just don't get along. They claim he's disruptive...he treats them with disdain.
There was a mandatory JAAAs training camp held in Nuremberg, Germany, from last Thursday to tomorrow, for all Jamaican athletes listed to compete in the World Championships, which start on Saturday in Berlin, Germany.
In an interview on KLAS FM Sports Radio, this morning, Juliet Cuthbert, former Jamaican sprinter and Olympic silver medalist in the 100m and 200m, informed the listening public that training camps are essential for athletes to build team spirit and camaraderie and to put the final touches on the baton-passing for relays.
...So it is essential that all athletes attend.
(The Americans had their training camp and it was mandatory for all of their athletes to attend, as well.)
Stephen Francis claims the facilities in Nuremberg were inadequate to prepare his athletes for the World Championships, as there was no weight-room and other necessary equipment.
(It is said that the hurdlers had to walk down the road to another track, in order to practice the hurdles).
So Stephen Francis had his own training camp, for his athletes, somewhere else in Europe.
When the MVP athletes turned up on Tuesday, in Nuremberg, the JAAAs decided to teach Stephen Francis and his athletes, a lesson.
...They would suffer for the decision they made, to not participate in the Nuremberg training camp...this morning's letter to the IAAF, was that lesson.
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Well the MVP athletes, through their agent, Paul Doyle, claim that they didn't know that the training camp was mandatory.
But really, now, Stephen Francis was at logger-heads with the JAAAs over this very same thing during the 2008 Olympics, when he refused to make his athletes join the JAAAs training camp, there.
So, for his athletes to claim that they didn't know that this training camp was mandatory, is really mischievous, if not, a downright lie.
...You mean to tell me, that, after the furor in Beijing, over this very same thing, that these athletes thought that the training camp in Nuremberg was optional?
Oh...please!
But this was no reason for the JAAAs to exact punishment on the MVP athletes.
Their coach being stubborn and self-willed, is not their fault...most geniuses are, and if the JAAAs doesn't realize this and start smelling the Stephen Francis coffee, they have a rude awakening, coming.
The IAAF realized the importance of having a strong Jamaican contingent to compete against the USA at the World Championships (they want to re-live the glory of Beijing) and asked the JAAAs to reconsider.
The promised 100m showdown among Asafa Powell, Tyson Gay and Usain Bolt...was also another reason why the IAAF asked the JAAAs to reconsider...a lot of their promotional effort has gone into billing this event and they could not lose this money.
Thankfully, the JAAAs has reconsidered.
But I tell you, it's a pity that it had to take the IAAF, to knock some sense into the JAAAs...
I mean, how could you not let these athletes compete?
I think that, as has been said on Sports programmes across Jamaica, Stephen Francis and the JAAAs need to sit with a mediator, to iron out their differences.
If they can't, then they need to strike a happy medium where they can both co-exist.
Whether they realize this or not, they both need each other, in the interest of Jamaica's athletic program.
This childish bickering between these entities, is tiring and a downright reflection of bad management in both camps...
Stephen Francis, the JAAAs, you are not only disgracing yourselves, but you are disgracing Jamaica...
Please, stop it!
Don't take Jamaica, Jamaicans at home and in the diaspora, for fools...Jamaican athletics needs you both, but it is bigger than both of you.
Tek wey youself (Jamaican, meaning remove yourselves...and where the above is concerned: remove your huge egos)...before we take you out (remove you from your positions)!
Nuff said! (Jamaican, meaning, enough has been said).
[I would like to thank Don Giovanní for the use of his Flickr inset photo above of MVP Track Club's Head Coach - Stephen Francis (in the yellow shirt) with Sébastien Olivier Buemi - a Swiss racing car driver].
Gillian
Sources Include:
1) KLAS FM Sports Radio, August 11-12,2009
2) Nationwide News Radio Programme, This Morning, August 12,2009
3) Article, "World Athletics: IAAF intervenes to keep Asafa Powell in Jamaican team", by Ian Chadband, Chief Sports Correspondent, Telegraph.co.uk
