( L - R ) Francis, Watts

Calm has returned to Jamaica's Olympic camp in Tianjin, China, with members of the MVP Track and Field Club turning out for relay practice Tuesday morning.

On Monday night (Jamaica time) when news broke of a disagreement between MVP athletes and management, it seemed Jamaica's medal hopes at the Olympics in Beijing might have received a significant blow.

According to radio reports and sports website Sportingeagle.com, led by former world-record holder Asafa Powell, several members of the squad had refused to turn out for relay practice.

Favoured to win

Jamaica is favoured to win the men's and women's sprint relays but, according to reports out of Beijing, Powell, Michael Frater and Shelly-Ann Fraser were signatories to a letter stating that they had been instructed not to participate in relay practice unless that practice involved them standing, walking or jogging while making baton passes.

Team manager Ludlow Watts reportedly made the announcement on Monday.

"The athletes on the relay squads were invited to training and all turned up, except for the MVP athletes," he said.

Instructed not to attend

Watts said he met the athletes and they had agreed to attend practice but, by midday Monday, they said they had been instructed by their coach, Stephen Francis, not to attend. This was requested in writing, Watts said, and later that evening they were presented with a letter signed by the athletes suggesting that relay practice was not convenient for them.

However, last night Watts told The Gleaner: "They (MVP athletes) turned up on Tuesday morning and participated at the required pace."

The problem is believed to have stemmed from the fact that the MVP athletes claim they were forced to attend a mandatory camp set up by the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA). The club's manager, Bruce James, and head coach, Francis, had lashed out at the JAAA for its refusal to extend a set deadline of August 3 for members of the Jamaica team to assemble.

This news comes on the heels of comments made this week by Don Anderson, head of the Jamaican delegation in Beijing, that Francis had returned his accreditation to the members of the Jamaican team's management. He had reportedly been handed his accreditation by the Jamaican ambassador on his arrival in China, but returned it afterwards.

No access

The accreditation, Anderson told the hosts of a sports-talk radio show, gave Francis access to his athletes at the training facility, but not to the athletes' village.

Francis had earlier blasted Jamaican officials, claiming he was not allowed to oversee his athletes before the start of the track events which start a week after the opening ceremony this Friday.

This is the second major blow-up between Jamaican officials and athletes at a major meet in the past decade. At the 2000 Games in Sydney, placard-bearing athletes protested the selection of veteran athlete Merlene Ottey to represent the country in the women's 100 metres at the expense of national champion Peta-Gaye Dowdie.