Following an outstanding run by Jamaica’s Tiffany James to take the 400n women’s crown at the IAAF World Under-20 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, there are doubts as to who is calling the former Papine High School champion athlete’s coaching shots.
Sources close to the world junior 400m champion spoke to Trackalerts.com, with their index finger close to their lips. They reveal that in a passionate post race tribute, she commended and expressed appreciation to her family members including her sister, Samantha – a middle distance athlete – for the training regime that brought her to the exciting victory in a massive personal best of 51.32 seconds.
There was no mention of the coach, thought to be handling her conditioning – 1983 400m world champion, Bert Cameron. That situation brings into question the ecstasy emitting from Cameron when contacted by Trackalerts.com, shortly after the race. There was a stark acknowledgement of the role he played in her preparation. He was so effervescent in giving thanks for the call, giving the unmistakable indication of “Yes, it was me.”
Later in the day, Cameron appeared on a program on Jamaica national television, when speaking from London, he rehearsed his history with James and accepted commendation given to him on her outstanding performance. Add all this to further out of camp whispers, that James’ high school coach, Shanikie Osbourne, is very much present at the championships, but seemed to be more interested in and attentive to bronze medal winner, Junelle Bromfield. The former St. Elizabeth Technical High School multi-disciplined athlete, has recently aligned herself to the MVP TC camp, bossed by the controversial elite coach, Stephen Francis In an interview, some years ago, Osbourne spoke of the support afforded in her development by Francis, saying, “I’m very grateful for that.” As such her involvement with the elite camp is quite understandable.
Clearly, as the real story unfolds and the new world under-20 champion, embarks on her senior campaign, there are interesting days ahead.
