IAAF President, Lamine Diack, should be given alot of credit for his intervention in the dispute between the JAAA and the MVP club. If he had not intervened, we would not have seen the Olympic Champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser cop another gold medal. Neither would we have seen, Asafa Powell, display a new found spirit of determination in winning a bronze medal in the 100M. It was very sad that the IAAF had to intervene for the love of the sport, as well thinking Jamaicans should have considered this factor. While there are rules to be abided by, it is still not clear whether or not the camp was mandatory. The MVP President has said that he never got any document saying that the camp was mandatory. What is clear though, is that there is a disagreement between the coach of MVP, Stephen Francis and the JAAA. We have to keep in mind that MVP has five of the top athletes which got medals at the last Olympics. That would have been a major blow to our aim of winning medals at the World Championships.

I am thankful that Mr. Diack showed true leadership in looking beyond personal grievances and flying the banner of athletics high, at a time when there is a further shadow over the sport. We must bear in mind that five of our athletes tested positive for banned substances, which is still unresolved. This fiasco would have no doubt branded our officials as incompetent, and would have given a serious blow to the moral in the camp.