Athlete vs. Coach in Budapest

Jamaica had its share of off-track drama at the Budapest World Championships. Reminiscent of a major disagreement between athletes and administration regarding Merlene Ottey replacing Peta-Gaye Dowdie in the 100m at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Members of the Jamaica team paraded through the Olympic village with placards denouncing Ottey, who they said was allowed to run the 100m at the expense of a distraught Dowdie.

This time, Tyquendo Tracey, Jamaica’s fifth place finisher in the men’s 100m at the Jamaica Trials, took to social media to accuse technical director Maurice Wilson of “bias” and “favoritism” after it was found that Kadrian Goldson (in photo), a sprinter who attends the G.C. Foster College where Wilson is principal and head coach of Sprintec track club at the campus, appeared on the team after the full team was named after the Jamaica Championships and selected to compete in the heats of the 4x100m relay despite not qualifying for the team through the National Championships, in which he was seventh. After the revelation by Tracy, Goldson did not run on the team which got bronze behind US and Japan.    

Wilson refuted the claim and called the statements libelous and defamatory and threatened to take legal action to protect his reputation. He claimed he had nothing to do with the selection of the relay squad.

Wilson also said Tracey has been disrespectful before to management and made allegations on social media before about his former coach Stephen Francis.

Tracy has not backed down and has turned up the volume as he calls for the removal of Wilson as Technical Director of teams to global meets. Checkout the related discussion on SportsMax TV.