Campbell-Brown

Veteran hurdler Danny McFarlane has defended Veronica Campbell-Brown's decision to withdrawn from Jamaica's 4x100m relay team at last weekend's 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

The Jamaican camp was rocked by its second major controversy last week, when news broke that Campbell-Brown would not be a part of the women's 4x100m team if she could not run the final leg.

However, in a recent radio interview, McFarlane, the 2004 Olympic 400m hurdles silver medallist, explained that the situation had been brewing from last year.

"That was coming from even last Olympics," he said.

"The way they went about doing it, I think Veronica was right not to compete," said McFarlane, who was also a 1600m relay silver medallist at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

"You cannot look at somebody like Veronica ... you cannot call Veronica on Saturday morning or some hours before and tell her you have to go run the curve ... no, this is Veronica Campbell, it is just not right," he added.

McFarlane, who also helped Jamaica to 4x400m silver medals at the Gothenburg (1995), Paris (2003) and Sevilla (1999) World Championships, says he personally thinks Campbell-Brown would be best suited for the curve.

Medical reasons

"I think she is one of the best curve runners, like Usain, but she was at the camp doing the anchor leg and it should not have changed," he said.

Donald Quarrie, the team's technical leader, said Campbell-Brown was asked to run the curve because Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart, the gold and silver medallists in the 100m, would have to run the straights, because of medical reasons.

McFarlane

Asked if he believed it was a blunder on the part of the coaching staff, McFarlane responded:

"I think a lot of people in the JAAA are weak."

McFarlane, running out of lane one, ran 48.65 for sixth in last Thursday's 400m hurdles final, which was won by American Kerron Clement in a world-leading 47.91.

McFarlane also commented on the current JAAA-MVP controversy. He believes that although the local governing body took the advice of IAAF President Lamine Diak and did not ban the athletes from the competition, it still had to take action.

However, he did not believe that the six MVP athletes - Asafa Powell, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Melaine Walker, Shericka Williams, Brigitte Foster-Hylton and Kaliese Spencer - who missed the mandatory training camp should be the ones to suffer.

Training camp

"If the JAAA don't do this, I know a lot of the athletes in the camp told me they 'cannot get me to come back here' (another camp).

"A lot of athletes are upset but they just don't want to talk ... they are upset that people were not at the training camp and the JAAA told them if they did not come what would happen to them."

However, despite saying that, McFarlane believes the athletes who missed the camp are not the ones the JAAA should punish, but instead the 'leader' of the group.

"I think if you are handing out punishment, it should be to the person making the calls," he said.