Julius Ssekitoleko’s escape to Japan lasted just four days, a Ugandan athlete who wanted to stay on the Japanese island because “In Uganda, life is particularly difficult.” He had left this sentence written on a note in his hotel room after missing the daily appointment with the Covid test, expressing his desire to be able to work in Japan. The weightlifter has remained untraceable in the pre-Olympic camp in Japan from the moment he learned that due to a question of quotas he would not be able to participate in the Tokyo Olympics, for which he had been so prepared. “He did not qualify” to participate in the Olympics in the 67 kg category “and should have returned home early next week” as the Ugandan website Chimpreports wrote, releasing statements made yesterday to another local media by the president of the Weightlifting federation of Uganda, Salim Musoke. “He was among the athletes on the waiting list, despite Ssekitoleko having won a bronze medal in the 67 kg category at the African Championships in Nairobi, Kenya, and was one of five confirmed lifters for next year’s Birmingham Commonwealth Games. “.
The intense searches by the police and the eye of the video surveillance eventually made it possible to trace the 20-year-old in the house of some acquaintances and now, contrary to his dream of “finding a job in Japan”, his prospect is a flight that will take him back to home. “Please send my family the luggage that I left in the room” added the note: eventually he will return with them, after an escape first in the prefecture of Gifu and then again south to that of Mie, where thanks to video surveillance was tracked down “safe and sound.” Now Ssekitoleko will have to give many explanations, both to the Japanese authorities and to those, sporting and otherwise, of his country, while both the five-circle dream and the hope of change have gone up in smoke life.