Oct 26, 2007 10:41 pm US/Central
Missing Boxers Suspected Of Defecting
2 Boxers From Uganda, 1 From Armenia Not Seen In More Than A Day
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Three international boxers missing from the World Boxing Championships are believed to have left voluntarily, and are suspected of defecting to the United States.
As CBS 2's Rafael Romo reports, the boxers – one from Armenia and two from Uganda – were last seen more than a day ago at the Palmer House Hilton, where all the competitors have been staying.
They were identified as Phillip Adyaku, 25, and Sharif Bogere, 19, both of Uganda; and Vachagan Avagyan, 25, of Armenia. The athletes left their hotels with their luggage, and one of the young men's parents expressed no concern, which leaves organizers to believe he defected.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports on reaction from other members of the Ugandan delegation.
Edwards Akora was knocked out of the championships Friday by Frenchman Alexis Vastine, and will return home to Uganda. His tow missing teammates apparently will not.
"They plan to stay in the United States. Thats what I'm," Akora said.
He added that his teammates said they told him they plan to stay in the country. That has put Uganda's coaches, responsible for bringing their boxers home, in a tough spot.
"They rang me yesterday, I had a call from one," said Ugandan coach Musa Kent. "He told me 'don't worry.' He said 'I'm very sorry for going.' I said 'you shouldn't have done that.' He said 'I can't change it, I'm already gone."
The other missing boxer is from Armenia, a team apparently in good spirits during the opening parade on Monday, though the others did notice something strange about one of their teammates.
"The guy had no desire to box and they could expect something could have happen, but never expected this to take place," said Armenian boxer Eduard Hambardzumyan.
While some delegation members were refused visas because of close ties to people in the U.S., all boxers who applied were allowed to come. Organizers assumed they'd go back.
"Frankly I didn't think about it, but now that it's happened, I'm not surprised," said Chicago 2016 Chairman Pat Ryan.
And it appears, for the two Ugandans anyway, this was no spur of the moment act.
"In Uganda we have boxers, in United States and those boxers are and they change ideas," Kent said, adding other Ugandans already in the U.S. may have arranged for the boxers' disappearance.
A newspaper in Uganda is reporting Friday that their two boxers left Chicago in a car with tinted windows and drove all the way to Canada. It's unclear how and where they crossed the border. They apparently had tourist visas to enter the United States, good through the end of the year. So in this country, it appears, the only rules they've broken so far were their own teams'.
"They're here on tourist visas, just the same as anyone else here on a tourist visa," said Doug Arnot of World Sport Chicago. "They can come, they can tour. There's no requirement that they stay with their teams. There's no requirement that they stay at a hotel. They're here simply as any other person who would come from their country."
Chicago hopes to use the event as a boost in its bid for the 2016 Olympics. The city got the championships in May after the event was pulled from Moscow.
CBS 2's Jay Levine and Rafael Romo, and the Associated Press, contributed to this report.
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