From 05:04 AEST THU AUG 9 2012

The seven Cameroon athletes who have gone missing from the Olympic village have visas to stay in Britain for another three months, LOCOG says.

“They have been reported as missing, but they have visas to stay in this country until November,” said LOCOG director of communications Jackie Brock-Doyle.

“Right now, they have done nothing wrong.”

A female goalkeeper who had not been included in the final squad, but trained with the team ahead of the start of the competition, disappeared last week.

Five boxers and a swimmer followed suit on the weekend, shortly before they were due to return to Africa.

They are suspected of absconding in order to pursue greater financial rewards in Europe than in West Africa.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed that it had been officially notified in writing by Cameroon’s Olympic committee that the athletes had vanished.

“Until they breach their rights to be here, it is quite difficult to do anything,” Brock-Doyle said.

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Wearing a bright smile and brighter gold medal, Jessica Ennis has won the hearts of Britons with her stirring performance in the heptathlon and her show-stopping good looks.

But there’s a Scrooge in every town, including in Ennis’ hometown of Sheffield.

Civic officials say vandals have defaced a mailbox there that was painted gold to honour Ennis’ achievement.

Royal Mail started an initiative to paint one red postbox gold in the hometown of every British athlete that comes home victorious.

But the Sheffield box was defaced with graffiti, prompting postal workers to quickly repaint it.

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Windsurfing made a spirited games exit, with Dorian Van Rijsselberge of the Netherlands collecting the men’s gold medal he’d clinched days earlier and Marina Alabau of Spain winning the women’s regatta.

Windsurfing got the heave-ho from the line up for the 2016 Rio Olympics in a vote in May, replaced by kiteboarding.

The International RS:X Class Association filed a legal challenge last week against the International Sailing Federation.

Van Rijsselberge and Alabau will probably have to focus on kiteboarding if they want to stay in the Olympics.

“Yeah, I think this was a mistake,” Alabau said about windsurfing getting blown out of the games.

“I think it will come back.”

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Rafalca didn’t earn a medal in the dressage competition, but co-owner Ann Romney was still happy with her horse’s performance.

“It was wonderful,” said Mrs. Romney, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

“She was elegant and consistent again. We just love her.”

The US finished sixth, and Rafalca, ridden by Jan Ebeling, ended in 28th place.

So what’s next for Rafalca, the horse that brought the sport of dressage to the attention of many Americans?

Mrs. Romney said that after Ebeling competes for another year or two, she would probably try breeding Rafalca, a German-bred mare.

A mare so famous and accomplished as Rafalca could be valuable on the horse-breeding market.

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Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shahrkhani is already having an impact back home in Saudi Arabia.

Just days after the judo athlete became was one of the first women to compete in the Olympics for the Gulf kingdom, Saudi martial arts star Ali al-Atiq said he plans to create a women’s team to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

Al-Atiq has told the Saudi newspaper al-Sarq that he will coach and train the women, and has called Wojdan’s debut a “historic achievement” even though she lost her only match in just over a minute.

Saudi Arabia, which had never sent female athletes to the Olympics before, brought two to London on condition they adhere to the kingdom’s Islamic traditions, including wearing a headscarf.

Shahrkhani’s debut was almost scuttled after the International Judo Federation said she couldn’t do that for safety reasons, but a compromise allowed her to wear a modified headscarf.

Hard-liners say the 18-year-old is dishonouring herself and her family by competing in front of men in form-fitting clothes.

Several have told her not to jeopardise her place in the afterlife for a fleeting bit of fame.

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Britain’s military has started pulling back personnel from the Olympics park after a private security contractor made good on its numbers.

Although G4S failed to provide some 10,000 workers it was contracted for, it is now sending more than 7,000 workers to Olympics venues each day.

“It’s gone as well as it could given our revised position,” said G4S spokesman Adam Mynott.

After admitting it would not make its original numbers, G4S told a Home Affairs committee last month it thought it could provide more than 7,000 workers.

The Ministry of Defence says because of the development, some military personnel have been put on stand-by.

Although there have been a few issues – guards turning up at the wrong place or minor skirmishes – G4S says the security operation has gone smoothly.

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It helps to have a thick neck if you’re going to drop a 196-kilogram barbell on it.

Team doctors said German weightlifter Matthias Steiner is sore and bruised but escaped serious injury after getting hit by the bar in the super heavyweight competition.

The defending Olympic champion got up on his feet but left the competition.

Germany’s team doctor said medical tests showed Steiner suffered ligament and muscle injuries but no damage to his spine.

“Although I would have loved to win a medal here, abandoning the competition was the right thing to do,” Steiner said.

“Now I am just glad that there are no fears of permanent damage.”

For more on this story go to:

http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=8513265

Pics courtesy of WWOS