A dispute over Asafa Powell's no-show at a Jamaican training camp has thrown his participation at the Berlin World Championships into question, his agent said on Monday.
The former 100m world record holder and club mates including Olympic champions Shelly-Ann Fraser and Melaine Walker failed to report for national team training in Nuremberg.
Powell's agent Paul Doyle said an e-mail from Howard Aris, president of the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association, on Friday implied five athletes could consequently miss the Aug 15-23 championships.
"He (Aris) said he was very disappointed and understands this means they did not want to participate at the World Championships," Doyle said.
Aris could not be reached for comment.
Doyle said he hoped the dispute would be quickly resolved once the athletes arrive in Berlin from their summer base in Lignano, Italy.
"I am hoping they are on the team," he said. "I have not been told otherwise."
At issue is whether the training camp was mandatory.
"I told Doyle that the camp was mandatory, and if they don't go to the camp, they could not compete," Aris told Monday's Jamaica Observer.
But Doyle said he only learned in Friday's e-mail that Jamaican officials were expecting all their athletes at the camp.
"To that point I had received no notification that the training camp had even existed and certainly not that it had been mandatory," Doyle said.
"I have also spoken to my athletes - Asafa in particular - and he says he never received any notification the camp was mandatory."
(Reuters via China Daily August 12, 2009)
