See How They Run.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2604086/Sierra-Leone-athlete-finished-20th-London-Marathon-disappears-flight-home.html

/// The Mail revealed that seventy claimed political asylum after the Olympics and more than have were given refugee status. ///

/// Last year police admitted they were still looking for 21 people who just vanished, with one official saying that some had competed then ‘simply wandered off to make a better life’ in Britain. ///

/// Those who failed to return home were from countries including the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Cameroon and Sudan. ///

Perhaps Africans should be banned from future games here in the UK?

[youngmafbog]

Yep, happens in all sorts of events. Wasn't ballet popular to escape from if you were eastern European at some point?

Oh well plenty of room and taxes for their benefits here.

[Canary42]

///Perhaps Africans should be banned from future games here in the UK? ///

Perhaps xenophobes should be banned from Answerbank !

[anotheoldgit]

Canary42

/// Perhaps xenophobes should be banned from Answerbank ! ///

Hey you forgot 'Racists', 'Islamophobics' 'Bigots' 'Daily Mail Readers, and 'Right-Wingers' why leave those out, you don't want to be classed as a person who doesn't believe in 'Equality' do you?

[sp1814]

AOG

'Perhaps Africans should be banned from future games here in the UK?'

Perhaps not.

Because that would mean some of the world's leading athletes being banned from the marathon, which could raise suspicions that it was being done in order to give other representatives a better chance.

[sp1814]

AOG

You missed out 'hypocrite'.

[emmie]

how many other athletes have gone missing, not just Africans, it shouldn't be difficult to disappear into the metropolis.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9458906/Cameroon-athletes-missing-from-London-2012-Olympics-amid-asylum-fears.html

emmie

/// how many other athletes have gone missing, not just Africans ///

Judging by these two reports they mostly come from African countries.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2188496/Fears-asylum-claims-Olympic-athletes-missing-meant-home.html

/// At the 2002 Commonwealth Games more than 20 members of one West African country sought asylum in Britain. ///

[jno]

and how many were granted it, aog?

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// You missed out 'hypocrite'. ///

I didn't want to offend you.

[Zeuhl]

let's check this out...

we'll spend millions staging major world class events...

then cancel or invalidate them just to prevent 21 potential illegal immigrants

to call that hare-brained would be an injustice to hares

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// Because that would mean some of the world's leading athletes being banned from the marathon, which could raise suspicions that it was being done in order to give other representatives a better chance. ///

That may well be, but I think it is a risk worth taking.

[Zeuhl]

/I think it is a risk worth taking. /

Not really

Because your proposed exclusions would invalidate the status of those events

No major athletes would bother taking part in events that have no international validity; for example, results would not count towards world rankings

and we'd never stage a World Championships, The Commonwealth Games or an Olympics ever again.

That should help make Britain 'Great' I don't think.

[sp1814]

No no...what I meant by 'hypocrite' is when someone complains about the CEO of Firefox being hounded by boycotts, but ignores the same level of harrassment that right wing Christian fundamentalists exert on companies that don't share their views.

That to me, is hypocrisy.

Although, I'm not sure that I've spelled 'hypocrisy' correctly.

But leaving that aside, I think your view wouldn't be shared by the majority of those who follow the sport.

Twenty one athletes hardly a crisis makes.

In fact, I would go as far to say that we should quickly grant them legal status and get them trained up for the next Olympics. These are top flight athletes remember.

Or is that just me looking for positives?

[ToraToraTora]

hey canary, what about us knuckledraggers?

[Zeuhl]

Isn't it peculiar that there are always some people so perverse that they will take something like the London Olympics which was universally acknowledged as a triumph for Britain and try to exaggerate any possible negative they can ferret out?

[emmie]

21 athletes, hardly a big number, how many people, those non athletes, who bunk in on the back of lorries, how many others who get in by being trafficked, how many are here illegally, how many should we be supporting, is Britain a charity, should we adopt charitable status, perhaps then someone can start lobbing money at us to take care of our elderly, poor.

[sp1814]

Good point Zeuhl...

AOG - would the risk worth taking extend to all sporting events, not just the London Marathon?

As Zeuhl has pointed out, it would make a mockery of the Commonwealth Games. Remember when a number of countries boycotted the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980? It meant that without the 'big hitters' (USA and China in particular), there was the feeling that the winners weren't really tested against the best in the world.

Do you not feel that for the sake of 21 absconders, banning every African nation from all future sporting events (in your question, you used the term 'games', so I assume you mean more than just the marathon), would be detrimental to British sport?

[emmie]

better checks on their status would be the answer surely, if they are counted in, then they can be counted going out, back to their home countries, fair wouldn't you say

[sp1814]

By the way...the Alien from the films of the same name, were also known as 'xenomorphs'.

They too, had a 'less than welcoming' attitude to other nationalities.

[emmie]

do you think we should offer sanctuary to any one who asks it, irrespective of the reason given