The Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games is currently on-going in Australia and reports have gone out on Five Cameroon athletes competing at event, whose whereabouts cannot be ascertained.
According to Independent Online, Weightlifter Olivier Matam, and boxers Ndzie Tchoyi and Simplice Fotsala had been due to compete on Tuesday but could not be found, Cameroon team manager Victor Agbor Nso said.
He said two other weightlifters, Aka Angeline Filji and Mikoumba Petit David, had earlier gone missing from the Games at the Gold Coast, but did not specify when.
The Australian police and security services were immediately alerted about their disappearance as the search intensifies to track them down.
“We have officially informed our hierarchy back home: the Ministry of Sports and the president of the National Olympic Committee of Cameroon,” Nso told Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV.
“We have also laid a formal complaint to the Australian police.”
It is not the first time Cameroon athletes have disappeared at a major sporting event. In 2012, five male boxers, a female footballer and a male swimmer absconded from the London Olympic village.
Nine Cameroon athletes disappeared at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games in Australia.
Meanwhile, Clémentine Noumbissi has brought a gleam of hope to Cameroon at the Games after the 27-year-old athlete won bronze in the women’s 90kgs weightlifting.
With a performance of 101kg in the snatch, 125kgs in the clean and jerk and a total of 226kgs she hit the podium. Fiji Island’s Eileen Cikamatana and Australia’s Kaity Fassina came first and second respectively.
The Team Nigeria contingent at the Common Wealth games is however performing greatly.
Nigeria on Tuesday claimed four gold and two silver in the para powerlifting competition of the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia, with Esther Oyema breaking her world record to secure a third consecutive Commonwealth title.
Oyema, who arrived on the Gold Coast boasting a world record of 126kg she set in the lightweight category at Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, lifted 131kg to give her a total of 141.6 points to claim gold and set a new world record.
