LONDON, August 26 – Four Ethiopian athletes have gone missing during a visit to Britain for an international athletics event, officials said.
The athletes, two women and two men, fled their hotel in London on Tuesday and failed to make a connecting flight to Edinburgh ahead of the Falkirk Cup athletics event, the officials said.
"My colleague actually tried to restrain two of them but they ran off," said Dagmawit Amare, an official with the Ethiopian team management, on Tuesday.
"This is such a sad thing to happen for my country and the sport."
Scottish Athletics chief executive Geoff Wightman said the incident had been reported to authorities.
"We invited them, so it’s our duty to report it to the authorities," he said.
The missing athletes are said to be women’s 200m runner Betelhem Shewatatek, Feleke Bekele (women’s 400m hurdles), Hagos Tadesse (men’s 400m) and Tirehas Haileselassie (men’s 400m hurdles).
