By Symone Goss, World-Track
BERLIN — Jamaican officials withdrew its request to bar former 100 metres world record holder Asafa Powell and five other members from competing at the World Championships, hours after saying they would kicked off the team.
Early Wednesday, Jamaica said the stars would not compete as the championships after failing to show up for the mandatory training camp for the worlds last week.
But IAAF secretary general Pierre Weiss said the world governing body requested that the Jamaican federation reconsider its decision because the exclusion of the six superstars would reflect poorly on the championship.
"We asked Jamaica to reconsider in the interest of sport," Weiss said.
"We didn’t like it. The world championships, that is our baby. We take care of our baby," he added.
Besides Powell, the other athletes who were set to miss the championships were Olympic champions Melaine Walker and Shelly-Ann Fraser, as well as hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton, and 400m runners Shericka Williams and Kaliese Spence.
Yea I think its a good move by Iaaf ..I hope they get to ryb in Berlin.
great move by the iaaf, they need asafa powell , he still has great marque value, dont forget he ran a sub 9 seconds relay leg in the olympics last year, not many people can do that, the last was the great american sprinter bullet bob hayes.
GREAT!!!! I HATE TO SEE ATHLETES GET PUNISHED FOR COACHES AND AGENTS BAD JUDGEMENT!
MVP needs to stop playing games with these athletes and put Jamaica first. They are using the same excuse that they used in Beijing. I want to see our best team run but MVP must stop behaving like they are bigger that Jamaica.
Could the IAAF interevene in the West Indies Cricket saga? Of course, you couldn’t expect me to be serious. But I sure hope some lessons could be learned by those folks. I am so pleased to see that Jamaica will not be fielding an inferior team for the Champs and that our fortunes will not be similar to the pathetic Windies.
The JAAA need to punish the coaches or something because its obvious that they are afraid of their coach. Star or no star they need to have discipline, if not they will continue doing this over and over. That would not happen with the Americans!
i agree with you winston, maybe we need a great fast bowler like usain bolt, if he were to change to cricket, just kidding but the west indies cricket board act like they are the employers of chris gayle and his boys, when its the other way around, no matter who you put in charge of the board, they could be as black as ever they act and behave just like their white predecessors.