A Ugandan weightlifter, Julius Ssekitoleko, who left the Tokyo Games Village unceremoniously has revealed the reason for his action.
According to CNN, Games officials said the 20-year-old left a note saying his life back home in Uganda was too difficult and he wanted to work in Japan.
“He had 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,” CNN stated.
“The athlete purchased a Shinkansen bullet train ticket to Nagoya, about 200 kilometers away,” CNN quoted an Izumisano official as saying.
“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 added.
City officials first feared he was missing around midday on Friday, when they noticed that a Covid-19 test sample had not been submitted by Ssekitoleko, city official Osamu Mizoguchi said.
Local police have been looking for him without success, Mizoguchi added.