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| Thomas Essomba (L) of Cameroon takes on Paddy Barnes of Ireland during their Light-Flyweight (49kg) match at the London 2012 Olympic Game |
Five members of the Cameroon Olympic boxing team failed to turn up for their plane home after being knocked out of London 2012.
It was feared they were keeping a low profile in the UK in a bid to secure permanent asylum once their Olympic accreditation had expired.
But unable to resist the pull of the punchbags, skipping ropes and medicine balls, the fitness fanatics blew their cover by turning up at a boxing gym in New Cross, South London.
Christian Donfack Adjoufack, 26, Thomas Essomba, 24, Yhyacinthe Mewoli Abdon, 26, Serge Ambomo, 26 and Blaise Yepmou Menouo asked if they could have session at the club with head coach Patrick Harris.
Light flyweight Thomas Essomba, 24, said: “We love Britain and want to stay. We want to meet the Queen and Wayne Rooney. We want to become champions and fulfil our dreams”.
“If we go home our government says we’ll never box again”.
“If we go home our government says we’ll never box again”.
The gym’s head coach Patrick Harris, 38, said: “These
guys just turned up out of the blue on Monday. We didn’t have a clue who
they were”.
“Then we noticed they had official London 2012 boxing vests and the penny dropped”.
The Sun treated Thomas and his four team-mates — Christian Donfack Adjoufack, 26, Abdon Yhyacinthe Mewoli, 26, Serge Ambomo, 26, and Blaise Yepmou, 27 — to a Nando’s takeaway.
The Sun treated Thomas and his four team-mates — Christian Donfack Adjoufack, 26, Abdon Yhyacinthe Mewoli, 26, Serge Ambomo, 26, and Blaise Yepmou, 27 — to a Nando’s takeaway.
The boxers all hope to seek asylum to train here and turn professional.
Under Olympic rules they are allowed to be in the UK until their visas expire in November. As economic immigrants they’ll have a fight on their hands to be allowed to stay after that.
Cameroon is one of the world’s poorest nations. A quarter of the population live on less than £1 a day.
“Then we noticed they had official London 2012 boxing vests and the penny dropped”.
The Sun treated Thomas and his four team-mates — Christian Donfack Adjoufack, 26, Abdon Yhyacinthe Mewoli, 26, Serge Ambomo, 26, and Blaise Yepmou, 27 — to a Nando’s takeaway.
The Sun treated Thomas and his four team-mates — Christian Donfack Adjoufack, 26, Abdon Yhyacinthe Mewoli, 26, Serge Ambomo, 26, and Blaise Yepmou, 27 — to a Nando’s takeaway.
The boxers all hope to seek asylum to train here and turn professional.
Under Olympic rules they are allowed to be in the UK until their visas expire in November. As economic immigrants they’ll have a fight on their hands to be allowed to stay after that.
Cameroon is one of the world’s poorest nations. A quarter of the population live on less than £1 a day.
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