By Symone Goss, World-Track
BERLIN — Triple Olympic champion Usain Bolt said the commotions earlier this week between the Jamaican athletics federation and members of the MVP Track Club, and the positive drugs tests of five team members, would not affect the country’s chances of adding the world sprint relay title to the Olympic crown they won last summer.
Several members of the mvp group, led by former 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell, missed the mandatory training camp which almost led to an expulsion from the championships.
That would have been added to the positive drugs tests of five team members, who are destined to miss the championships, following a lengthy delay in their hearing.
But while those on the outside stressed over the lack of preparation for the relay, Bolt, who ran the third leg on the world record setting team in Beijing last summer, said everything is going well.
"We have a good team, everybody is here," he said on Thursday. "We are looking good in practice and I’m not worried."
The Jamaicans who set the world record of 37.10 seconds last summer will field three of the four members of that winning team in Berlin.
The returners are Bolt, Powell and Michael Frater, who ran a towering second leg, with the only member missing being Nesta Carter.
However, with Steve Mullings, who will run in the individual 200m dash, just missed going under 10-seconds this season, the Jamaicans again will definitely start as the team to catch, and should win comfortably, if they can get the baton around safely.
Meanwhile, unlike like Bolt, Jamaican federation president Howard Aris wasn’t as quick to dismiss the fact that the team would be unaffected.
"It would be dishonest to pretend that damage has not been done," Aris said, but added that he hoped the dispute and its resolution "could be used to heighten the motivation."
