Sport 22-09-2000 "Prima Donna" Track Star Perec Flees Games who: french track star Marie-Jose Perec what: Mysteriously flees Olympic Games where: Sydney when: Yesterday snippet: "Triple Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec fled the Games yesterday," says The Mirror, "apparently running scared of a showdown with Aussie rival Cathy Freeman." "Perec, twotime defending champion in the 400 meters and a potential threat to favorite Cathy Freeman in the 400 at the Sydney Games, headed to Melbourne and then on to Singapore," says The Independent. Reebok, sponsors of the French track star who won the 200m and 400m at the 1996 Atlanta Games, announced that Ms Perec had left the games after a man had forced his way into her hotel room and threatened her - an accusation staunchly denied by the hotel management. Later, on arriving at Singapore airport, she and her boyfriend Anthuan Maybank were arrested following an altercation with one of Sydney`s Channel Nine TV cameramen, who had pursued the couple. "He lunged at me, and I automatically started filming," says cameraman Kyme Hallion in The Star. "I was on the ground, and he was hitting me and trying to either break the camera or get the film out. He hit me on the back of my head with his fist. He kept repeating `Give me the tape`." But there`s not much sympathy back home, where the French have finally lost patience with their athletics prima-donna. "She shunned all contact with the national team," says The Guardian`s Jon Henley, "rented a private hotel room rather than stay in the Olympic village, paid for private training facilities and refused to take part in the opening ceremony or the routine round of press conferences". [... more]

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