Rio 2016: Minister begs athletes not to escape

The Minister of Sports and Physical Education (MINSEP) spoke during the farewell ceremony to Team Cameroon.

24 Cameroonian athletes will be in Rio de Janeiro for the 31st Olympic Games (5-21 August 2016). The authorities want to see everyone return home once the competition is over.

The MINSEP used the occasion of the farewell ceremony to the Cameroonian delegation to urge athletes to turn their backs from runaways, which has become a common practice in recent years.

“I would like to refer here and to deplore, a phenomenon that has always tarnished the image of our country on the occasion of major sports competitions.

This is the desertion of the athletes, “launched Bidoung Mpkatt in his speech for the occasion, before continuing: “The image your predecessors projected on the occasion of previous competitions was far from brilliant. ”

Cameroon has taken steps to curb the runaway phenomenon of athletes, said the boss of sports. “Aware of the deficiency in sports infrastructure of our country and partly justified the desertion problem of athletes, the President of the Republic, as part of his major achievement program, is committed to providing Cameroon with infrastructures of modern quality some of which are already operational, “said the Minister.

One, therefore calls for more accountability on the part of Cameroonian athletes who have become champions of the fugue in international competitions.

During the Olympics in 2012, five competitors, all boxers ran away. During the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in 2014, a dozen athletes parted company with the rest of the delegation.