( L - R ) Asafa Powell, Melaine Walker, Shericka Williams, Nesta Carter

HIS opponents on the track have a major problem keeping pace with him. However, the Japanese consulate in Milan, Italy, has slowed down the world's fastest man, Asafa Powell, pushing back his arrival in Osaka, Japan for the World Championships.

Powell, along with other team mates from his Maximising Velocity Power (MVP) club in Shericka Williams, Nesta Carter and Melaine Walker, are having problems acquiring a visa at the Japanese consulate in Milan.

In an interview with The Gleaner yesterday, Paul Doyle, manager of all the athletes with the exception of Walker, says they are yet to be issued with visas to enter Japan.

"We are having a bit of an issue now dealing with visas, but we hope to have that sorted out by the end of this week to depart on Monday," said Doyle, who pointed out that they had planned to leave for Japan on Saturday.

"The consulate in Milan is giving us more trouble than we though it would be," he explained, while not saying the nature of the problems. Doyle and the group are in Stockholm, Sweden, where the athletes competed at yesterday's DN Galan meeting. He said they will be going back to the Japan consulate in Milan today.

"We are going to try and get the visas and hopefully by Friday we will have them and be ready to depart on Monday," he said.

The remainder of the national athletes who are based here in Jamaica are scheduled to leave tomorrow and are to be joined by the country's overseas-based athletes for a training camp, which is scheduled to start on Saturday, August 11. Powell and his teammates, if they depart on Monday, will arrive in Osaka on August 14.

- Anthony Foster