Missing Commonwealth Youth Games athlete told 'athletics career over'

Teenage Cameroon athletes feared consequences of returning home after poor performances at Isle Of Man games

A teenage athlete from Cameroon failed to board her return flight home because she was worried about her poor performance at the Commonwealth Youth Games, staged last week in the Isle of Man, police sources said today.

Foumena Marie Gaelle told detectives she fled Manchester Airport after her head coach had told her and another girl that their athletics careers were over.

Both 16-year-olds were said to be anxious about any financial implications from that decision and decided to stay in the UK rather than take their early morning return flight via Brussels last Wednesday.

Foumena handed herself in at a police station in Manchester on Saturday but her team-mate, Balana Marie Michel, remains missing.

Foumena failed to qualify for the 100 metres semi-finals from her heat and finished eighth out of nine competitors in the long jump, while Balana also went out in the first round of the 100 metres and 200 metres contests.

As the rest of the team boarded the return journey the girls, who only speak French and have no known contacts in Britain, fled from the airport's Terminal 3.

Foumena walked into Grey Mare Lane Police Station at 10.30am on Saturday and is now being cared for by social services.

Police urge anyone who has seen Balana or knows where she is to contact them.