Powell joins the missing list at Jamaica meet

Kingston: Former 100-metre world record holder Asafa Powell will not race at this week`s Jamaican Athletics Championship, the nation`s qualifying meet for the Glasgow Commonwealth Games, sources told AFP Thursday.

Jamaican Amateur Athletics Association sources said that Powell has "a bug" that will keep him from competing in the meet that began Thursday. Powell was expected to make his competitive return Thursday in the men`s 100m but a note from Powell`s camp to the athletics governing body said "unfortunately Asafa will be unable to take any part due to a bug". If the 31-year-old harbours any hope to compete in the July 23-August 3 Commonwealths, he will have to hope to be granted a place on a medical exemption ticket. Powell returned from a groin injury to compete in last year`s Jamaican meet, but finished seventh in the 100m and later tested positive for the banned stimulant Oxilofrine. Earlier this year he was issued an 18-month ban but he and former training partner Sherone Simpson have appealed their cases to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Powell was given a temporary reprieve while he appeals the suspension ahead of a hearing July 7-8. Powell joins a list of absent stars that includes reigning 100m Olympic champion Usain Bolt and his training partner, Yohan Blake. Olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is also missing due to a leg injury, but Simpson is expected to compete, as is Veronica Campbell-Brown, a treble Olympic champion who was cleared of a doping violation by CAS in March over handling issues with her sample.