Seven Sierra Leonean athletes have joined a Tanzanian boxer and a Bangladeshi runner on the Commonwealth Games missing list.
Six track and field athletes and a weightlifter -- four men and three women -- from the Sierra Leone team were last seen in the athletes' village on Tuesday night.
Robert Green, spokesman for the Sierra Leone contingent, yesterday declined to identify the missing athletes, but did confirm that the three women had failed to compete in a scheduled relay event.
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Several athletes from Sierra Leone, an African country impoverished after years of civil war, went missing during the Manchester 2002 Games.
Green said he was not aware of any special conditions placed on Sierra Leone athletes entering Australia and there were no "formal concerns" for the missing athletes.
Although, he said, "if someone goes missing, naturally you have concerns for their safety."
Only one of the athletes was carrying a passport.
"It's the usual practice because athletes are notorious for losing things that the team leader holds the passports for safekeeping," Green said.
All visiting competitors were granted a visa until April 26 with their credentials.
"It's up to Melbourne 2006 as to whether they revoke the credentials of the athletes -- in that case, the visa would be void as well," Green said.
Most of the team was due to return to Africa late tomorrow, a night ahead of the closing ceremonies, although there were some cyclists who had to compete in the road race on the final day and were not due to leave until next Tuesday.
Victoria state police were treating the case as a missing persons investigation.
"We don't have any concerns for their welfare, [but] we'd like to know they're all right," a police spokesman told reporters on the customary condition of anonymity.
Police said immigration authorities would not become involved until any athlete overstayed his or her visa.
In the meantime, Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri and Mohammad Tawhidul Islam, a 400m runner from Bangladesh, have not been located since being reported missing from the village on Monday.
Meanwhile, two Indian weightlifters have tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs, escalating a doping scandal that has loomed over the Commonwealth Games and the sport for weeks.
Indian team officials told reporters they were notified late yesterday that Edwin Raju, who was fourth in the 56kg division, and Tejinder Singh, who withdrew from the 85kg division, failed tests in Melbourne four days before the March 15 opening ceremonies.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper would not confirm the reports.
India faces up to a five-year ban from all international weightlifting competition if the charges are confirmed following analysis of B samples.
Indian chef de mission H.J. Dora, who is also head of India's national weightlifting federation, said it would be "premature" to comment on any positive tests.
"If someone's not clean there's a process to be followed by the organizers," he said.
The doping allegations overshadowed Jamaica's sweep of the 100m and 200m sprint titles in athletics, with the last coming from Sherone Simpson's upset over Olympic champion and teammate Veronica Campbell in the women's 200m.
Simpson moved up on Campbell's inside with 50m to go and surged ahead to win in 22.59. Campbell clocked 22.72 and South Africa's Geraldine Pillay was third.
Omar Brown won the men's 200m in a photo finish from Stephan Buckland of Mauritius after a desperate lunge across the line. Both finished in 20.47 seconds.
The Jamaicans won the 100m double on Monday via world record holder Asafa Powell and Sheri-Ann Brooks. Brooks was fifth in the 200.
Australia's Jana Pittman overcame her "drama Jana" reputation and a hamstring injury to defend her 400m hurdles title in 53.82 -- her first major title since winning the 2003 world championship.
"This has been the most amazing experience of my life," Pittman said. "I don't think there'll be a moment that matches this ever again."
Louis Van Zyl led a South Africa 1-2 in the 400m hurdles and Anika Smith added another gold for them by winning the women's high jump at 1.91m.
Alex Kipchirchir Rono won the 800m in 1 minute, 45.88 seconds, while Sydney Olympic gold medalist and two-time defending champion Maria Mutola of Mozambique qualified fastest for the women's 800m.
Seattle Storm forward Lauren Jackson scored 23 points and helped Australia finish off a dominating run in the basketball tournament with a 77-39 win over New Zealand.
Defending champion India beat New Zealand 1-0 to advance to the women's field hockey final against Australia, a 3-0 semifinal winner over England.
Elsewhere, Canada's Marie-Helene Premont dodged a kangaroo and won the women's mountain bike race from Rosara Joseph of New Zealand.
"I was surprised to see a kangaroo run in front of me ... I was a little bit insecure, but it's OK," said Premont. Liam Killeen led an English 1-2 in the men's race.
The news for India was better on the shooting range, where five-gold winner Samaresh Jung took a day off to watch his wife, Anuja Jung, win gold in the 50m rifle, three-prone event.
The family has eight medals here already -- Samaresh's five gold and a silver and Anuja's gold and silver.
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