JAAA clears five MVP athletes for World Champs

Five top Jamaican runners including former world record holder Asafa Powell have been cleared to compete at the World Championships a few hours after the Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) requested their withdrawal from the entry list.



The JAAA had requested that all athletes selected to the team must take part in a pre-World Championships training camp in Nuremberg, Germany.



However the athletes did not show up at the mandatory camp.



The other athletes reported missing from the camp were 100 Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser, 400 hurdles Olympic gold medalist Melaine Walker, sprint hurdler Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Beijing Olympic silver medallist Shericka Williams.



All the athletes are from the MVP Track Club and trained by Stephen Francis.



International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF)general secretary Pierre Weiss confirmed a short while ago that the Jamaica athletics federation withdrawn its request to ban the athletes.



Weiss said the IAAF had put pressure on the Jamaican federation to change its mind because the exclusion of the prominent athletes would reflect badly on the championship itself.



The JAAA said the athletes could face possible sanctions after the championships instead.



The World Championships start on Saturday in the historic German city of Berlin.