Ugandan Olympian Ditches Team in Japan

A Ugandan athlete who has gone missing in Tokyo ahead of the Olympic Games had left a note saying his life in the African country was too difficult and he wanted to work in Japan, officials have said. Julius Ssekitoleko, a 20-year-old weightlifter, failed to qualify for the Games after his arrival in Japan, and was due to fly back to Uganda on July 20. But he was last seen at a local station near his delegation’s hotel in Izumisano at 6:30 a.m. on Friday. The athlete purchased a Shinkansen bullet train ticket to Nagoya, about 200 kilometers away, an Izumisano official told CNN. In the note, Ssekitoleko said he did not want to return to Uganda and asked the members of his delegation to send his belongings back to his wife, the Izumisano official Aadded. Ssekitoleko competed in the Men’s 56kg weightlifting final at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, aged just 17. He finished 10th in that contest. The Ugandan delegation was among the first teams to arrive in Japan for the delayed Tokyo Olympics. The team started training in the western Japanese city on July 7 after completing a mandatory quarantine.

SOURCE: CNN