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No-show Algerian goalball team in trouble

Roar Rookie
12th September, 2016
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The Algerian women’s goalball team could face disqualification from the Rio Paralympics for missing two games because they hadn’t arrived in the country.

The International Paralympic Committee’s head of media Craig Spence says the team finally arrived in Rio on Sunday (Monday AEST) after a six-day journey.

“They are still sticking to their story that they suffered the worst transport issues known to man. Whether we believe it is a question mark and we are looking into it,” he said.

The visually impaired goalball athletes, who play their sport in complete silence in order to hear a ball containing bells, were on a training camp in Warsaw, Poland.

They should have travelled on September 5 in order to get to the Games for their first two matches against the US and Israel.

Instead, the five players and two coaches claimed they faced multiple delays, cancelled flights, and missed connections, but Rio2016 organisers have suspicions.

“Even if you caught a boat from Poland to Brazil you still could have got here in time,” Mr Spence said.

“We’ve seen no evidence of flights into Rio from Europe being cancelled in the last few days, so we’ll continue investigating this matter.”

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Mr Spence said the IPC needs concrete proof to throw the Algerian side out of the competition, and until then he is hoping the team can make their games against Japan on Monday and Brazil on Tuesday.

“They have got to get a bus from the athletes’ village to the venue. You never know,” he said.

“It has taken them six days to fly here. They might as well set off now and might just make it.”

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