A dispute over Asafa Powell’s no-show at a Jamaican training camp has thrown his participation at the Berlin world championships into question, his agent told reporters on Monday.
The former 100m world record holder and clubmates including Olympic champions Shelly-Ann Fraser and Melaine Walker failed to report for national team training in Nuremberg, Germany.
Powell’s agent Paul Doyle said an e-mail from Howard Aris, president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association, on Friday implied five athletes could consequently miss the championships from Saturday until Aug. 23.
PHOTO: AFP
“He [Aris] said he was very disappointed and understands this means they did not want to participate at the world championships,” Doyle said in a telephone interview.
Doyle said he hoped the dispute would be quickly resolved once the athletes arrived in Berlin yesterday from their summer base in Lignano, Italy.
“I am hoping they are on the team,” he said. “I have not been told otherwise.”
At issue is whether the training camp was mandatory.
“I told Doyle that the camp was mandatory, and if they don’t go to the camp, they could not compete,” Aris told Monday’s Jamaica Observer.
But Doyle said he only learned in Friday’s e-mail that Jamaican officials were expecting all their athletes at the camp.
“To that point I had received no notification that the training camp had even existed and certainly not that it had been mandatory,” Doyle said. “I have also spoken to my athletes — Asafa in particular — and he says he never received any notification the camp was mandatory.”
Doyle also disputed reports the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) had wanted the athletes at the training camp for doping control and other purposes.
“None of them have been asked by the IAAF to be in Nuremberg,” he said. “Absolutely not.”
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