Cameroon disappointed me - Marie Fegue

If Cameroon ended the 2014 Commonwealth Games on the 4th and 17th positions in Africa and the World respectively, it is thanks in most part to the lone goal medal snatched by female weightlifter Marie Josephe Fegue.

Though Fegue travelled with the Cameroon delegation to the competition in Scotland, she returned without them. She dumped the delegation after winning the women's 69kg weightlifting category - Cameroon’s first Commonwealth Games gold medal since 2002.

Official reasons for her action were not well known until recently. “I love Cameroon, I love my country.

I would have done anything to qualify, go right to the Olympics and get a medal if possible. I have the will and love for this country. But then, Cameroon disappointed me squarely. Despite my best efforts, everything I did, managers, supervisors, coaches and others lied to me.

They’ve deceived me to an extend you can’t imagine,” she told a radio programme aired on Amplitude FM in Yaounde.

She explained that the lies started since 2011 when she got a scholarship from the International Olympic Committee for the preparation of the 2012 Olympic Games in London. But when she got to the Cameroon National Olympic and Sports Committee officials dribbled her around.

“They were telling me something else. I was told that I can no longer travel even as other athletes who had received the same grant went on the trip,” she recounted.

With her brilliant performance at the just ended Commonwealth Games, she would have remained with the Cameroonian delegation, but couldn’t because of this continuous disregard for her career. “This is the main reason that pushed me to abandon the Cameroonian delegation - I couldn’t take it anymore,” she bemoaned.

Before leaving for Scotland, Fegue claim she never nursed any thoughts of dumping the delegation. She said when she won the gold medal, she said to herself “Wow! Maybe this time they will finally recognize what I have been doing and try to solve my problems.

But instead, I wasn’t given any warranty regarding my premium. I just wanted a scholarship to improve my skills and do what they expect of me,” Fegue explained.

Puzzled on why she left her delegation without collecting her FCFA 2 million gold medal premium, Fegue retorted: “I learned while at the games’ village that a gold medal was worth FCFA 2 million.

But what is 2 million? It means nothing at all.” She disclosed that her Nigerian opponent was first of all her friend before becoming her rival. Fegue said she asked her how much they were being paid for a silver medal and she “told me FCFA 10 million.”

“I was surprised, I was down casted. I have won gold and they’re promising me two million. This is another reason that prompted me to leave. Two million CFA francs is an insult to my work,” Fegue said before disclosing that even as meagre as the amount was, she was told her money will be paid only back in Cameroon. She questioned why her premium should be paid in in Cameroon when her counterparts were receiving theirs right at the games’ village.

Fegue said there were plenty of people who approached her after the dumping incident with the proposal to change her nationality.

“But I did not accept; I told them to go sign elsewhere because I love my country,” she said. The gold medalist, who is still in London, says at the moment, she is waiting for the president of the National Olympic Committee to react to her situation before she can return home.

Amateurish management of Sports in Cameroon is more than ever discouraging sports men and women pushing many to abscond during international competitions into developed foreign countries.

After the 2012 Olympic Games incident, two Cameroon athletes reportedly absconded during the just ended Commonwealth Games in Scotland, though one was later found.

In September 2013, Thomas Essomba and Blaise Yepmou Mendouo, all Cameroonian boxers who disappeared from the Olympic Village during the London 2012 Olympic Games were granted asylum and began training for UK Championships.

The two boxers from Cameroon whose disappearance shocked the London Olympics were tracked down – in Sunderland, according to British media. Thomas Essomba, 25, and Blaise Yepmou Mendouo, 29, were amongst seven Cameroonian athletes who disappeared during the 2012 games.