No spikes no plane

Officials said the incident between members of the MVP track club and officials at an Italian airport occurred Wednesday in Venice and noted that the entire party withdrew from the meeting, citing the same reason.

According to meet official Vangelis Melikounakis, World silver medallist Michael Frater, Commonwealth Games 200m champion and Olympic relay gold medallist Sherone Simpson and Brigitte Foster, the Commonwealth Games 100m Hurdles champion all pulled out of the meet because they were not prepared to take a chance at losing their spikes.

Unhappy with behaviour

In the meantime, Caribbean Net News has been informed that the organisers called a meeting for Monday July 24 to discuss the type of action they will take against the Jamaican party or their manager as they were not satisfied with the resulting conduct.

Powell and his three Jamaican teammates were subsequently scratched from the starting list of competitors and the organisers are fuming, with the possibility of taking legal action.

"We will send a report to the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and the European Athletics Federation (EAA) to express our unhappiness about the athletes, the agent," a statement released by the organisers said.

"That's why were are excluding them from the starting list and we reserve the right to commence legal action over their absence."

Powell was gearing up to for a shot at gaining sole ownership of the men's 100-metre dash, an event in which he shares with American World and Olympic champion Justin Gatlin, at 9.77 seconds. Despite a poor start in his last meeting in Rome last week, the 23-year-old Commonwealth Games champion produced a scorching 9.85sec to win the race and he said he felt he was now in the right form to lower the mark on the Gallos Stadium's track.

Simpson has been electrifying this season, beating Olympic champion and fellow country woman Veronica Campbell in the 200m twice and stopping global champion Marion Jones' unbeaten streak this season, as well as owning the fastest times this season for both the 100m and 200m, at 10.82 and 22.00.