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?

[sandyRoe]

London could be a dangerous place for a naive and impressionable young woman. I hope she's safe and no harm has befallen her.

[anotheoldgit]

sp1814

/// Twenty one athletes hardly a crisis makes. ///

They were just from the Olympic games there are also some who have absconded from the Commonwealth Games.

/// 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. ///

Oh and you just think that being 'top flight athletes' qualifies them to become British Citizens doyou?

Now had they been Engineers, Doctors, or Nurses etc then maybe that would qualify them, and be more beneficial to the country.

[sandyRoe]

Zola Budd had the backing of The Mail to come here and run for us. Did she win a medal?

[sp1814]

Damn you sandyRoe...I wanted to say that about Zola Budd.

[anotheoldgit]

Who's Zola Budd?

[Zeuhl]

/Engineers, Doctors, or Nurses etc then maybe that would qualify them, and be more beneficial to the country. /

It is debatable whether an engineer, doctor or nurse contributes more to the country than a 'top flight athlete'

Would Mo Farah have contributed as much to the UK if he'd been an engineer?

[Zeuhl]

for aog's education

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zola_Budd

[Zeuhl]

//The Daily Mail, a British tabloid newspaper, persuaded Budd's father to encourage her to apply for British citizenship, on the grounds that her grandfather was British, to circumvent the international sporting boycott of South Africa so that she could compete in the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. With a strong push from the Daily Mail, British citizenship was granted in short order and she moved to Guildford. Her application and arrival was controversial due to her acquiring a passport under preferential circumstances. Groups supporting the abolition of apartheid campaigned vociferously and effectively to highlight the special treatment she received; other applicants had to wait sometimes years to be granted citizenship, if at all.//

[emmie]

Mo Farah has been one of Britain's athletic success stories, however he didn't do it all alone, he had lots of help. Had he been an engineer no one would have heard of him - unless he helped build a new bridge across the Thames.

[Zeuhl]

/Had he been an engineer no one would have heard of him - unless he helped build a new bridge across the Thames. /

Exactly emmie

in fact, the relatively new footbridge near St Pauls

who knows the names of any of the engineers? or cares?

If we make a list of whoever we personally consider to be 50 British 'top flight athletes' and the deal was we could eradicate them and get 50 nurses or engineers in their place, would that be a good deal?

[Svejk]

last time I looked, zola budd wasn't signing on in tower hamlets.

[emmie]

you must have heard of Brunel, that is at least one, and sure could name some more, sadly there are lots of little Mo Farah's who aren't remotely interested in doing good for themselves or their communities. Another one was killed the other day, apparently a case of mistaken identity, the father
has called for calm, no more of these killings, yet they go on, and on.

[sp1814]

Svejk

Yep...she buggered off to Canada, didn't she?

Also - those who go 'off radar', can't sign on.

If they did...they would be very much 'on radar'.

[emmie]

she must be a pensioner now.

[emmie]

sp, not so, sign on doesn't mean they keep tabs on you, not over much going on my experiences.

[Zeuhl]

/you must have heard of Brunel/

LOL I don't think he had much to do with The Millennium Bridge emmie :-)

[emmie]

our top athletes, sports stars get well paid for their time, as to Engineers overall they are the ones we need, like other professional people,

[emmie]

i didn't say he did, however you said who had heard of an engineer, and he was the biggest, by far.

[emmie]

divebuddy, isn't that what passports are for. If 50 athletes come into the country, from whatever part of the world, then unless they have a damn good reason, like broke a limb, or had a heart attack, then 50 should be on the plane home