Posted by Kingston – World-renowned track and field coach Stephen Francis is convinced the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) is out to sabotage him and the success of his athletes.
On Monday, reports surfaced that five MVP athletes, former world 100m record holder Asafa Powell, Olympics Games champions Shelly-Ann Fraser (100m) and Melaine Walker (400m hurdles), Shericka Williams, winner of the Olympics 400m silver medal, and national 100m hur-dles record holder Brigitte Foster-Hylton, all coached by Francis, have been dropped from Jamaica’s World Championships team because they failed to report for last Thursday’s mandatory training camp in Nuremberg, Germany.
It was to this that Francis responded.
“I am convinced that the job of the JAAA executive, most of them, is to try sabotage me and the success that I have with my athletes,” he said in an interview with Irie FM.
“I think that everything they do, they designed to do it and I have to be very, very wary of what they do,” he continued.
When contacted, President of the JAAA, Howard Aris was asked about Francis’ comments and about the possibility of the organisation working against a particular coach. “Certainly not,” said Aris.
“I don’t see why they look at a coach of my reputation and want to tell me how to prepare my athletes. What right do they have to tell me how to prepare my athletes,” Francis snapped.
The coach explained the reason behind his decision not to attend the pre-World Championships camp.
“Every time they come up with a camp so far, they have chosen a very inferior location. This one, for example, has no weights room, the track has no hurdles or other requirements,” he said.
According to Francis, hurdlers would have “to walk down the road to an old track to practise”.
Jamaica’s technical director, Donald Quarrie, could not be reached to comment on the facility in Nuremberg.
Francis’ athletes, minus Michael Frater, Anneisha McLaughlin, Christine Day and Markino Buckley, who are already in the camp, were given up to noon yesterday to report or face being dropped from the team.
But up to press time, there was no indication as to whether the athletes had joined the camp.
The group’s original plan was to head straight into the team’s village in Berlin today.
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THESE PEOPLE ARE JUST GETTING ON MY NERVES. IM SO SICK OF THE I SAID, U SAID, I AM BOSS U R NOT. WHAT IS WRONG WITH EVERYBODY . TIME IS SO STRESS AND THE LITLLE TRACK AND FEILD THAT MAKE U FEEL HAPPY THEY R SPOILING IT. GOOD HEAVENS
Coach francis is a very negative person.He seems to think that he is bigger than the sport itself, if i was Asafa i would have switched coaches a long time ago.Francis is always fighting the system, if all the other athlete attended and its not hurting them, then why should his athletes be any different
Th Foster, repeatedly Mr Francis has refused to accept invitation from the JAAA to be a part of the coaching team. Last year his response was that he has no allegiance to country because his athletes are not just Jamaicans and his athletes come first so its not a matter of the JAAA trying to separate him from his athletes. As I said before you all should have listened the interview and you would have heard that its a personal issue and his athletes will ultimately be the ones suffering.
Also your comment about Caribbean is made up of more than one island….know this athletes will come and go but administrations are perpetual. Anywhere you go rules will have to be followed. The Americans, the British, the Russians…they all have rules by which they stick by whats wrong with us?
Alva, well said. Rules are rules plain and simple. It doesn’t take Einstein to understand what’s going on with MVP bosses. He Francis thinks he’s bigger than everybody. Personally, i thought that exempting them from the team would have sent a very clear message to the world ‘We are not a bunch of idiots’ and we are a prideful nation with a lot of class, and those who CHOSE TO ACT out their greivances and ‘wash their dirty linens in public basin’ does not fit to represent the nation whether it’s a superstar athlete, coach, agent, or a rat mi nuh give a dam yu nuh bigger than the rules it mek fi everybody and should be honored. Anybody willing to wager a bet? Come 2011 or 2012 at the next two major championships it will be deja vu all over again with him and his charges. Mr FRANCIS AS THE OLD ADAGE GOES ‘UNITY IS STRENGHT’ FOR THE LOVE OF COUNTRY,MEK MI DWEET SAH.
you know they wouldn’t pull Usain if had not shown.
but he did…so we cannot argue that
What an egotistical son of a gun. Mills may not have had as many athletes as this childish man but look what he has done for Usain, Daniel Bailey, Yohan Blake in a short time. What has Franno done for Asafa…maybe Asafa should join up with Glen Mills who recognizes that it is the athlete who brings fame to the coach and that Jamaica is bigger that us all.