Campbell-Brown

Berlin, Germany:

The verbal tug-o-war between Jamaica's technical leader in Berlin, Donald Quarrie, and star athlete Veronica Campbell-Brown, heated up on yesterday's final day of the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics.

Quarrie accused the women's 200 metres silver medallist here, of refusing to run the sprint relay after she 'was down to run.'

Still won gold

Jamaica with a team comprising Simone Facey, Shelly-Ann Fraser, Aleen Bailey and Kerron Stewart faced the starter without Campbell-Brown and won the gold medal in 42.06 seconds. Campbell-Brown told The Gleaner on Saturday that she withdrew from the relay team after she was given a choice to run either the first or third legs an hour and a half before the final. She said she had practiced to run only the anchor leg during Jamaica's mandatory pre-championships training camp in Nuremberg, Germany and an hour and a half notice was not enough time for her to divert from what she was training in.

However, Quarrie said things changed when they got to the athletes' village in Berlin.

"We did practice relays but as you are aware the situation changed once we came into the village and from there we had more people to be involved in our team."

The 1976 Olympic 200m gold medallist said before Saturday's relay they had told Campbell-Brown that two athletes had a problem.

Quarrie

"We explained to her the situation with two of our athletes (Shelly-Ann Fraser and Kerron Stewart) who because of medical reasons could not run the curve but when we met with her she was very adamant about the fact that she will only run the anchor leg and that's final.

"We explained to her also that after the semi-final we would contact her (because she was out there warming up), and let her know what the position is. She again told us ... 'Mr Quarrie whenever you come back to me regarding this, my decision will not change and it's final. I will not run any other leg but the anchor.'"

According to Quarrie, Campbell-Brown who was informed that changes would be made after the semi-finals "attacked us saying that she saw this coming and outside forces are influencing us to make our decision."

Quarrie said his main concern at the time was getting the team out and winning especially in a situation where their main rivals the United States had failed to reached the final.

"We told our athletes, just go there for the win, and in fact to go a little further I even said to Veronica (Campbell-Brown) 'Veronica we can win this relay because the US is out of it so it is not a problem whichever leg you run but she stood fast saying that she is not going to run any other leg but the anchor leg.'

Quarrie did concede that Campbell-Brown was only fully informed of the leg she would run less than two hours before the race.

Medial reasons

"That is true in the sense that she was informed that the straightaways will be run by Shelly-Ann (Fraser) and Kerron (Stewart) because of medical reasons. So that was a given."

Fraser has said she is still feeling pain from a recent appendectomy while Stewart reportedly has a knee problem which has forced her to run only the 100m here.

Following Jamaica's gold medal performance Campbell-Brown in commending the team added that the relay disruption possibly prevented a better performance, with or without her in the team.

"A good team was sent but with more unity we could have run close to the world record (of 41.37 set by East Germany in 1985)," she said.