Mills should be hailed

There are those who will stop at nothing to try and discredit the name of Glen Mills and the Racers’ Track Club.
What happened prior to the start of the 12th IAAF World Athletic Championships with two of Mills’ athletes returning adverse analytical findings was unfortunate, but as Mills explained his athletes had no intent to cheat.
In fact, as Mills said, if there were guilty of anything it was poor judgement.

The supplement Muscle Speed that we now know contained traces of the stimulant 4-Methyl-2-Hexanamine was being used by several athletes. Mills explained that when they checked the website used to peddle the product no mention was made that the supplement contained the stimulant that closely mirrors Tuaminoheptane, a stimulant commonly found in nasal decongestants.
Now, there are those who have a hard time believing that this is the case, but when you look at the material that the Racer’s team have in their possession they make a strong case that its athletes were misled.
The athletes though must take a big share of the blame. If something seems too good to be true it usually is. As a result when the athletes began doing their research and seeing the claims that the supplement’s manufacturers made that the tablets unleash explosive power, alarm bells should have gone off. They should have dug deeper. They should have held off using the supplement until they were absolutely certain.
Mills recognises this and which is why he is setting up a medical panel which will have to approve any supplement an athlete in his camp is considering taking, and only after it is approved will they be allowed to take it.

The club also plans to host several sessions on doping that would be open to all athletes so that such a mistake is not made by any Jamaican athlete in the future.

One has to give credit to the veteran coach. No one could blame him if he decided to close ranks and shut the world out, but instead he opted to help others who may fall into the same trap.

It’s a pity others in the track and field fraternity dont think the same way. Instead of reaching out to support Mills some have tried to use the opportunity to try and tarnish Mills’ reputation as well as that of his athletes.

It’s a pity they cant see that in hurting Mills they hurt all Jamaica. But such is the myopic vision of some of us who claim to have Jamaica’s best interests at heart.