November 29 - A disciplinary panel has decided that Jamaican star Asafa Powell (pictured) and five others would not be punished further for skipping a training camp in Germany on the eve of this year's World Championships.

 

The group, which includes former world record holder Powell and women's 100 metres Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, skipped Jamaica's main athletics training camp in Nuremberg just prior to the World Championships in Berlin.

 

The others include Olympic 400m hurdle champion Melaine Walker, hurdlers Kaliese Spencer and Brigitte Foster-Hylton and 400m sprinter Shericka Williams.

 

They all belonged to Maximising Velocity Power (MVP) training group and are coached by Stephen Francis and it was the second consecutive year that they had been involved in a row over attendance at the training camp following a similar incident before the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

 

They were all controversially dropped from Jamaica's team for Berlin before the intervention of Lamine Diack, the President of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), saw them restated.

 

"A sanction was imposed against the offenders and at the instance of the President of the IAAF, the sanction was withdrawn," the panel wrote in a letter to the Jamaican Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA).

 

"To attempt to revisit the matter would be tantamount to trying them twice."

 

The panel included former Jamaica Chief Justice Lensley Wolfe, former Attorney General of Jamaica Winston Spaulding and Chief of Staff of the Jamaica Defence Force Major General John Simmonds.

 

It recommended that coaches communicate better and work closer with the JAAA in the build-up to the London 2012 Olympics, when the Jamaicans are due to be based in Birmingham.

 

"Something needs to be done to get the coaches to be more cooperative.

 

"They need to understand that it is the JAAA that is invited to these meets and the athletes only become eligible to participate if selected by the JAAA."

 

 

Related stories

September 2009: Jamaica to review Games training camp policy before Birmingham 2012

August 2009: Jamaicans sign deal with Birmingham for 2012 training camp
August 2009: IAAF President intervenes to save dropped Jamaicans
August 2009: Top names facing axe from Jamaican team
August 2008: Row breaks out in Jamaican training camp