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JAAA did not back down under duress - Aris says management report will dictate next move against MVP athletes
Published: Friday | August 14, 2009
Elton Tucker, Assistant Editor - Sports
BERLIN, Germany
President of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA), Howard Aris, said yesterday that his association will await a report from the management of the team here in Berlin before deciding if any action will be taken against the athletes who missed a mandatory World Championships training camp in Nuremberg.
Aris said a three-member disciplinary panel, chaired by retired chief justice Lensley Wolfe, has been in place since January to deal with matters such as the one which has arisen. The other members of the panel are attorney-at-law Winston Spaulding and Major General John Simmonds.
He added, however, that a process had to be followed.
"The team management must make a report to the executive of the association. I can't anticipate what the reports (which covers matters like accommodation, travel arrangements, performances) will say but in the event that there is need for anyone to appear, the panel is there and ready."
The JAAA president was responding to questions at a hastily arranged press conference to clear the air on the move by the association to backtrack on a decision to withdraw six athletes from the MVP Track Club from the 12th World Championships in Athletics which starts here tomorrow.
Aris said it was only after the intervention of the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Lamine Diack, that the JAAA decided to rethink its decision. He was, however, quick to point out that the JAAA did not act under duress or coercion.
"President Diack made it very, very clear that he had no authority ... to tell us as an association what to do. He wanted us to look at some of the issues ... and to look at the total picture. He felt that Jamaica was a critical player in track and field at this time and therefore we should look at not only our own position but the position which we hold in world athletics."
Aris was at pains to point out that President Diack understood that if the JAAA had rules and there were athletes not abiding by these rules then the national body had a right to act.
"What the IAAF said to us is that we are not telling you how to manage your affairs ... but they asked us not to use the World Championships as punishment for breaking those rules."
Losing respect
The JAAA president said Diack, based on his personal intervention, went to the team hotel and spoke with the entire delegation - athletes, management and coaching staff - to explain his actions and to bring the authority of his office so that "the JAAA would not be seen as an organisation reneging on its own rules one, and two, possibly losing the respect of the management staff."
The IAAF had acted just in time to prevent the axing of the athletes.
A source close to the JAAA said the six members of the MVP Track Club, including former world 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell, Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker and 400 metres silver medallist Shericka Williams, "were just five minutes away" from having their accreditations withdrawn when the IAAF intervened.
Meanwhile, the fate of four of the athletes who were cleared of a doping offence by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Committee's disciplinary panel over the past week remains in doubt.
Final decision
An IAAF spokesman told The Gleaner yesterday that they had only just (yesterday) received documents on the case from Jamaica and were studying them and a final decision will be made today on the eve of the start of the championships.
Marvin Anderson, Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence and Yohan Blake were cleared on Monday, and Sheri-Ann Brooks a week ago.
Anderson is injured and will not run at the championships, but the remaining four are still on the team.
Brooks is entered for the 100m and Forthergill and Spence for the 400m. Blake is a member of the sprint relay squad. Aris said he, too, was not sure if the athletes could compete but reminded his audience that Pierre Weiss, secretary general of the IAAF, reiterated at a news briefing on Wednesday that as of now the athletes are on the team and until they are taken off they are on the team.
Published: Friday | August 14, 2009
Elton Tucker, Assistant Editor - Sports
BERLIN, Germany
President of the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA), Howard Aris, said yesterday that his association will await a report from the management of the team here in Berlin before deciding if any action will be taken against the athletes who missed a mandatory World Championships training camp in Nuremberg.
Aris said a three-member disciplinary panel, chaired by retired chief justice Lensley Wolfe, has been in place since January to deal with matters such as the one which has arisen. The other members of the panel are attorney-at-law Winston Spaulding and Major General John Simmonds.
He added, however, that a process had to be followed.
"The team management must make a report to the executive of the association. I can't anticipate what the reports (which covers matters like accommodation, travel arrangements, performances) will say but in the event that there is need for anyone to appear, the panel is there and ready."
The JAAA president was responding to questions at a hastily arranged press conference to clear the air on the move by the association to backtrack on a decision to withdraw six athletes from the MVP Track Club from the 12th World Championships in Athletics which starts here tomorrow.
Aris said it was only after the intervention of the president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), Lamine Diack, that the JAAA decided to rethink its decision. He was, however, quick to point out that the JAAA did not act under duress or coercion.
"President Diack made it very, very clear that he had no authority ... to tell us as an association what to do. He wanted us to look at some of the issues ... and to look at the total picture. He felt that Jamaica was a critical player in track and field at this time and therefore we should look at not only our own position but the position which we hold in world athletics."
Aris was at pains to point out that President Diack understood that if the JAAA had rules and there were athletes not abiding by these rules then the national body had a right to act.
"What the IAAF said to us is that we are not telling you how to manage your affairs ... but they asked us not to use the World Championships as punishment for breaking those rules."
Losing respect
The JAAA president said Diack, based on his personal intervention, went to the team hotel and spoke with the entire delegation - athletes, management and coaching staff - to explain his actions and to bring the authority of his office so that "the JAAA would not be seen as an organisation reneging on its own rules one, and two, possibly losing the respect of the management staff."
The IAAF had acted just in time to prevent the axing of the athletes.
A source close to the JAAA said the six members of the MVP Track Club, including former world 100 metres record holder Asafa Powell, Olympic 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, 400m hurdles champion Melaine Walker and 400 metres silver medallist Shericka Williams, "were just five minutes away" from having their accreditations withdrawn when the IAAF intervened.
Meanwhile, the fate of four of the athletes who were cleared of a doping offence by the Jamaica Anti-Doping Committee's disciplinary panel over the past week remains in doubt.
Final decision
An IAAF spokesman told The Gleaner yesterday that they had only just (yesterday) received documents on the case from Jamaica and were studying them and a final decision will be made today on the eve of the start of the championships.
Marvin Anderson, Allodin Fothergill, Lansford Spence and Yohan Blake were cleared on Monday, and Sheri-Ann Brooks a week ago.
Anderson is injured and will not run at the championships, but the remaining four are still on the team.
Brooks is entered for the 100m and Forthergill and Spence for the 400m. Blake is a member of the sprint relay squad. Aris said he, too, was not sure if the athletes could compete but reminded his audience that Pierre Weiss, secretary general of the IAAF, reiterated at a news briefing on Wednesday that as of now the athletes are on the team and until they are taken off they are on the team.
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