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Perec hits trouble in Singapore after fleeing Olympics
= = SINGAPORE, Sept 22 (AFP) - Triple Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec was quizzed by police for 11 hours Thursday over an attack on a cameraman after fleeing the Sydney Games and a much-hyped clash with Australia's Cathy Freeman. The French track star and her boyfriend Anthuan Maybank, who were released without charge on the orders of Singapore's Attorney-General Chan Sek Keong, later took an overnight flight to Paris. Perec and her entourage abruptly fled Sydney late Wednesday after she claimed a stalker had threatened her in the hotel room. An intended brief stopover in Singapore, turned into a day-long questioning by police after an altercation with a freelance cameraman at the airport. Australian television footage showed Maybank threatening and hitting cameraman Kyme Hallion who was taken to hospital for a checkup. Perec and Maybank were taken to the Bedok police station near the airport where they were later joined by the French ambassador to Singapore Michel Filhol and the consul, Christine Gaudaire. After an 11-hour investigation the police issued a statement saying no one had been arrested and that "the Attorney General's chambers directed police to take no further action in respect of the case." Perec and Maybank refused to answer reporters' questions when they arrived at Singapore's Changi airport with Filhol who escorted them through immigration to their Air France flight to Paris. "It was extraordinary behaviour," Australia's Channel Nine news director Paul Fenn told AFP. "Maybank was hitting our cameraman in the head." In a joint statement to AFP, French Olympic Committee president Henri Serandour and French Sports Minister Marie-George Buffet confirmed that Perec would not compete in Sydney. "Marie-Jose Perec left Australian territory on Wednesday September 20 which means she has withdrawn from the Sydney Olympic Games," they said. "The French delegation doesn't know the reasons but it would like to clarify that it is in no way linked to an anti-doping test." Perec's agent Annick Avierinos said the 400m star fled after being spooked by a man who forced his way into her room, although neither police nor hotel management had any record of the incident. Serandour too was cynical of the claims. "I am very unconvinced as far as the verbal aggression is concerned," he said and blasted Perec's behaviour. "All these big stars ought to know where they came from and how many people have taken care of them. She could have at least phoned the chef de mission, Michel Vial," he said. Vial, head of the French delegation in Sydney, said her no-show would disappoint a lot of people. "Many people in France and Australia are probably regretting that we won't see the race between Cathy Freeman and Marie-Jose Perec," he said. "Perec has always said that she wasn't the type of person to run away from competition." Her showdown with Freeman, the world champion and Atlanta silver medallist, was expected to be one of the highlights of the Games. Perec won the 200-400 metres double four years ago in Atlanta and the 400 metres title in 1992 in Barcelona. But she had been a recluse since arriving in Sydney, accusing the Australian press of hounding her and making her a virtual prisoner in her room. Avierinos told AFP the alleged stalker incident had proved the last straw. "I will find you wherever you go," the stalker apparently told Perec before finally leaving. Avierinos added: "She just can't take any more of it." Perec resorted to a website to communicate with the outside world and launch attacks on the Australian media. "I have the impression that everything has been made up in order to destabilise me," she said. "The Games have just begun and I wish they were over already, I'm so frightened." Notoriously private, Perec had been training away from her team mates and was staying in a city hotel far from the athletes' village. She has been racked by injury since being diagnosed shortly after the 1996 Games with the strength-sapping Epstein-Barr syndrome and only made a belated comeback in Europe earlier this year. She was beaten into third place in a 400m Grand Prix event in England in June and has not raced since. But French athletics president Philippe Lamblin said on Tuesday her training was going well and her body could stand up to her schedule. Freeman has beaten her only once at a European invitational just weeks after their Atlanta showdown. The Australian's biggest threat is now expected to come from Mexico's Ana Guevara, Britain's emerging Katherine Merry and America's Latasha Colander-Richardson.
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