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THE entire Cameroon boxing team who vanished during the Olympics have turned up ... in a backstreet London gym.
The five fighters are all living in one tiny bedsit and vow: “We want to stay in Britain. We love it.”
After losing their bouts they did a runner from the Olympic Village three weeks ago in a bid to escape their poverty-stricken African homeland.
But yesterday The Sun tracked them down training at council-run Double Jab Boxing Club in New Cross, South East London.
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.”
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.
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.
The five fighters are all living in one tiny bedsit and vow: “We want to stay in Britain. We love it.”
After losing their bouts they did a runner from the Olympic Village three weeks ago in a bid to escape their poverty-stricken African homeland.
But yesterday The Sun tracked them down training at council-run Double Jab Boxing Club in New Cross, South East London.
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.”
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.
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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