Richard Ashenheim, Staff ReporterTHE final topic on which I feel obligated to make a few comments concerns the problem that arose in regard to Jamaica's representation in the women's 100 metres.
The list of entries as extracted from the computer in the Main Press Centre disclosed that Jamaica had entered four competitors in that event, namely, in alphabetic order, Peta-Gaye Dowdie, Tayna Lawrence, Beverly McDonald and Merlene Ottey. Jamaica was entitled to do this provided that at least one name was removed by a stipulated day prior to the event.
In my opinion, a number of occurrences went wrong from the outset. I have never seen any statement by the JAAA over the years making it mandatory for the selection for a national team of the first three places in an event in the national trials provided that all of them have achieved the relevant qualifying standards.
I have always been opposed to such a rule and I have steadfastly and consistently argued against the application of such a principle from the inception of my association with the JAAA back in the early 1950s. It has created difficulties for the United States, its leading proponent, and has deprived them of many potential medals.
Jamaica, in my opinion, cannot afford such a luxury. Even as recently as the Sydney Olympics, the US refused to select their two best 200m runners because untimely injuries kept Maurice Greene and Michael Johnson out of the finals of the US's sudden death trials in this event. They accordingly selected three other athletes. The result was that one of these three was eliminated in the semi-finals and the other two placed last and second to last in the final whereas the likelihood had been that the gold and silver medals would end up with Uncle Sam.
I have always maintained that the task of the selectors should select for each event the athletes who in their opinion would be the best ones and expected to place the highest at the particular championship in question on the day designated for the holding of the event - not two or three months before the day in question.
The JAAA, at the trials, knew Ottey, due to problems with IAAF Rules, had not been able to have a full quota of prep races. At the trials she returned the fastest time of all the competitors in the 100m although she placed only fourth in the final. These were still about two months before the closing date for the choosing of the final entries for the event in the Olympic Games. The overwhelming probabilities were that Ottey's performances would improve and that the overwhelming chances were that she would, at the worst, be one of Jamaica's three fastest competitors in the event by the time of the Games.
There was also, at the time, the question as to whether Beverly McDonald should be entered for both individual sprints in addition to the relay or whether she should be left to concentrate on one of the individual events as she had done, with great success, at the World Championships last year.
Instead of taking the public and the athletes into their confidence and putting the various options which were before them and the logical thought processes that were before them, the JAAA remained silent and allowed the thoughts and imaginations of the public and the athletes to run riot.
Not even the letters to the athletes inviting them to take part in the Games seem to have done anything to clear up what in my view should have been the JAAA's position as it should have logically been. Nor did the fast times returned by Ottey subsequent to the Jamaican Championships provoke any word from the JAAA on the subject. It allowed the public, the media and the athletes a field day in speculation.
Ottey, up to a point, removed all elements of sensible speculation as she gave her critics an overwhelming response with her spikes by returning a series of fast times which were faster than anything any Jamaican had achieved for the year. This culminated in a time of 10.91 - albeit assisted by a wind slightly in excess of that permitted by IAAF Rules for record purposes.
Yet, Ottey lost her cool and composure and on more than one occasion issued statements to the effect that if the JAAA did not select her for the 100m she would take a holiday. Jamaicans do not like their public figures making threatening statements if they do not get their own way and many members of the public turned away from supporting Ottey's cause. I therefore am of the opinion that Ottey was badly advised in making the statement or statements that she did rather than allowing her spikes and the stop watch to do the talking on her behalf.
I cannot and will not support the action of the athletes in their display of placards and the demonstrations in the athletics' village in Sydney. They rendered a great disservice to their country by their demonstration and threats not to run the relays. This was an insult to the Jamaican public in general and to those who provided the financial support which enabled a large team to attend and participate in the Olympic Games.
I offer my congratulations to those athletes who took the sensible view and refrained from participation in the demonstration.
I must cast some blame for what took place on Ray Stewart, former Jamaica sprint champion, and a many time Olympic finalist. His charge, McDonald had placed second in the 100m at the Jamaican trials. Last year, at the Jamaican Championships before the World Championships in Seville, McDonald had also placed second in that event. She announced she did not wish to take part in the 100m at those Championships but would concentrate on the 200m and the relay in which she ended with a silver and bronze medal respectively. The JAAA refrained from taking advantage of her position and did not select Juliet Cuthbert who had placed fourth in the Jamaican trials on that occasion as a member of the team for the 100m and she retired from all international competition. Jamaica on that occasion ended with one competitor in the 100m.
On this occasion, at least one member of the media carried a report that McDonald had stated she would not be taking part in Sydney in the 100m but would once again concentrate on the 200m and the relay.
A few days later, Stewart issued a statement from his home in Texas stating that no one had contacted him as McDonald's manager-coach and his protege would be taking part in all three events for which, in his opinion, she had qualified. He failed to mention he was at the time involved in a disagreement with the JAAA.
I thought McDonald's attitude was the proper and correct attitude. Her performances at the 100m had not inspired confidence she would even reach the final in the 100m whereas I felt that she had an outstanding chance of a medal in the 200m provided that her energies were not previously dissipated by four rounds of races in the 100m.
More so, McDonald's performances and times in her races subsequent to the Jamaican trials tended, in my opinion, to confirm that her chances of reaching the final in the 100m was becoming more and more remote by the race and that her best interests - and those of the Jamaican team - would be served by her withdrawal from the 100m team and leaving her to concentrate on the 200m in which I remain convinced she would have earned the silver medal had she been left to concentrate her energies on the one event.
Finally, based on certain information received from JAAA sources, I question Peta-Gaye Dowdie's attitude in the matter. Yes, she won the 100m at the Jamaican trials. However, her performances subsequent to the trials left much to be desired. Whilst the times of Ottey and Tayna Lawrence improved, her times and performances, seemed to deteriorate. In the first of two races in Europe she placed seventh out of eight competitors in the rather sedate time of 11.36.
In her second race in Malmo, Sweden, she placed second with a time of 11.07 but the strength of the following wind makes her performance impossible of rational assessment and she finished over a metre and a half behind a US athlete who ultimately failed to advance to the semi-finals of the event in the Olympic Games.
Jamaican officials in Sydney alleged that although she arrived with an elaborate training schedule from her coach at Louisiana State University she refrained from adhering to it and refused all efforts by the Jamaican officials for her to take part in any competitive event whether in the 100m or the relay. Her coach at her American University is reported in another media, as denying those allegations.
It is alleged in that newspaper that the coach received an e-mail from the JAAA stating that in view of an alleged performance in a meet in Europe, her coach should go easy with her in the lead up to the Games. He also alleged the meets in which the JAAA wished to participate were too soon after a lengthy and exhausting air flight. These reported statements have been denied by the American coach.
Based on the form of the various athletes at the time of the closing of the final entries and having regard to the other factors which I have mentioned my opinion is that the officials were correct in selecting Lawrence and Ottey to compete in the event. They were, on revealed and current form, the best by far of the four athletes and deserved their places. At any rate, the upshot and final placing in the event has proved their judgment to be correct and, in my opinion, one cannot quarrel with a proven successful result.
In my opinion, a disservice was done to McDonald by leaving her in the event instead of allowing her to concentrate solely on the 200m.
Unless the evidence before the officials showed Dowdie was well below any sort of respectable form or that she was in fact injured I would, by process of elimination, have been inclined to leave her in the event, to compete as Jamaica's third entry and take her chance.
Jamaica, in its present situation needs more unity although she does not need its citizens to be deprived of its right to dissent. However, it needs informed criticism of actions and statements by persons performing public roles in Jamaican life.
I hope and trust a full report will be made public in which no punches are pulled, all reasonable questions answered and in which the roles of all participants are fully exposed.
