rediff.com
rediff.com
sports
      HOME | SPORTS | OLYMPICS | NEWS
September 21, 2000

general news
general features
slide show
archives

SCHEDULE
GO

pick your sport


archery
badminton
baseball
basketball
beach volleyball
boxing
canoeing
cycling
fencing
football
gymnastics
handball
hockey
judo
pentathalon
rowing
shooting
show jumping
softball
swimming
table tennis
taekwondo
tennis
track events
triathalon
volleyball
waterpolo
weightlifting
wrestling
yatching

send this story to a friend

Perec to miss Olympics

France's triple Olympic champion Marie Jose Perec is reportedly out of the Olympics and will not make Marie Jose Perec -- Al Bello/Allsportit to Homebush Bay on Friday to defend her 400m Olympic gold against hometown star Cathy Freeman.

A Reebok spokesperson confirmed that the enigmatic French star would take no further part in the Games.

Perec left Sydney late on Wednesday for Singapore after receiving threats, a French television station reported earlier.

TF1, which quoted the athlete's agent Annick Averinos for its information, did not elaborate.

The Reebok spokesperson, however, confirmed that the threats had caused Perec to leave Sydney, and give the Olympics a miss.

Perec, 32, who won an unprecedented 200 and 400 metres double at the 1996 Atlanta Games and took the one-lap title in Barcelona four years earlier, had been staying in a Sydney hotel.

She is due to enter the 400 metres heats at the Sydney Olympics on Friday, for a much-anticipated showdown with the host country's Cathy Freeman.

Perec has been the mystery woman of the Games, shunning the French athletics team's official news conference on Tuesday.

She has hardly competed this year and has refused to talk in public since arriving in Sydney.

She has also irritated French officials by declining to join their team training camp in the Sydney suburb of Narrabeen, training instead at a secret location with her German coach, Wolfgang Meier.

Plagued by injury and sickness since Atlanta, Perec has barely competed since.

She took a gamble earlier this year by leaving the stable of American guru John Smith to join Meier, the husband and former coach of former East German sprinter Marita Koch who still holds the 400 metres world record.

Perec's last race was in Nice in July, when she was third in 50.32 seconds in her first one-lap event in four years. She won gold in Atlanta in 48.25, while Koch's record, set in 1985, stands at 47.60.

Parec and her fiance, who landed in Singapore, were questioned by police over an airport assault on a television cameraman, Australian Channel 9 television said.

Footage of the incident broadcast by Channel 9, which had put the cameraman on the same flight from Australia as the Frenchwoman, clearly showed a fist winding up for a punch.

Channel 9 news director Paul Fenn said Perec's fiance Anthuan Maybank hit the cameraman ''behind the ear and generally whacked him''. The cameraman was shaken but not hurt, Fenn said.

''The police questioned the pair (Perec and Maybank) in the airport and in the city and I understand they've been released,'' Fenn said. He said no charges would be laid.

Mail your comments

Back to top
(C) 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by framing or similiar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters Sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.Reuters
HOME | NEWS | MONEY | SPORTS | MOVIES | CHAT | INFOTECH | TRAVEL | NEWSLINKS
ROMANCE | WEDDING | BOOK SHOP | MUSIC SHOP | GIFT SHOP | HOTEL BOOKINGS
AIR/RAIL | WEATHER | FREE MESSENGER | BROADBAND | E-CARDS | EDUCATION
HOMEPAGES | FREE EMAIL | CONTESTS | FEEDBACK