SEVERAL OF the world's leading athletes will be converging at the National Stadium tomorrow night to compete at the Jamaica International Invitational meet.

They include American Tyson Gay, the 2007 World Championships sprint double winner, 2007 World 200m bronze medallist Wallace Spearmon and Jamaica's Veronica Campbell, last year's World 100m champion.

Outstanding athletes missing

While fans are expected to flock in their thousands to support this meet, they will be disappointed that a number of outstanding local athletes, including world 100m record-holder Asafa Powell, Sherone Simpson, Brigitte Foster-Hylton, Michael Frater, Nesta Carter and Kaliese Spencer will be absent.

All the athletes named above are members of the MVP Track Club which is coached by Stephen Francis.

The coach said there were two reasons why his team would not compete at the invitational meet. "Our number one reason is that we have a schedule of meets to participate in and the Jamaica Invitational is not on our agenda," Francis said last week at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia.

Not given preference

The other reason, he said, was "our home-based athletes are not given preference."

"When athletes from France or any other country participate in their own meet they are given preferences, but when we do so at home we are not given this privilege and I do not see MVP athletes participating at this meet in the near future," he said.

"We are not comfortable with the treatment given to our athletes as they give the Americans all the preferences and the benefits and if there is one voice to speak out on this, I will be that one voice.

"Most of the Jamaican athletes know this and, despite being given little or no respect, they still compete because they are afraid. We do not depend on the JAAA for anything and my voice is the only voice in Jamaica on track and field because other coaches and athletes are afraid to talk, fearing they will not get any assistance.

"All we get from the Jamaican authorities is a letter to take to the various embassies to travel overseas."

Francis said his main grouse was about respect and not money."This is not about finance because our athletes perform at a lot of meets for free and they give of their best. We participate at the Queen's, Milo Western Relays and the UTech Invitational," he continued.

Turning to the main man in his camp, Powell, Francis rejected all comments which suggest that the world record-holder is yet to take home a big title like a World Championship or an Olympic gold because of a 'mental problem'."Despite what people may think, Asafa does not have a mental problem," he said.

"Asafa's problem is that he does not work out hard enough in training and it also has to do with his body size and type. Sometimes it is hard to get him to come back on day two. On day one he looks very awesome and we are working on that to get him back on day two ... I am very confident that he is getting there and will go all the way this time," said Francis.

ON DRUGS

In a few weeks, embattled Jamaica-born coach Trevor Graham will be on trial. He ischarged with three counts of making false statements to federal agents and he, along with key witness Angel Guillermo Heredia, could identify some elite athletes who are involved in performance-enhancing drugs.

As far as Francis is concerned, MVP Track Club is clean."We have nothing to worry about, as our athletes are the most tested in the world and we have competed fairly. I am not caught up in this whole allegation of drugs in other camps as I have taken great pains to ensure that we go the correct route," he said.

Francis agreed that although many athletes are tested regularly, they do find ways to beat the system and he is hoping for the day when the authorities will have a list of athletes and say to the world that these athletes are drug-free and are running clean.

"Our athletes take the least supplements as we are not sophisticated like those in the First World countries. I have nothing to worry about and if they want to have a 24-hour-a-day monitoring of our athletes, I will be ready for that because we obey the rules and we are clean," said Francis.

ON POWELL VS GAY

Powell - AP

Francis said there is a contractual agreement for them to meet at least once before the Olympics, but he is unable to give details on this at the moment. His focus, he said, is to prepare Powell for the Games.

Francis, Powell and the MVP squad will leave the island days after next month's National Championships for their annual camp in Italy. Their training base is in Lignano, close to Venice."We will be there until October and they will be competing three or four times before the Olympic Games,'' concluded Francis.

In recent years, Francis has led a host of his athletes on the Jamaica senior team to big meets and he expects that to continue this year.

"Last year, I had nine people on the senior team and I am expecting more to be on the team this time around,'' he said.