Two of the three missing boxers who were in Chicago for the World Boxing Championships have contacted their teams, but none of the three has been located.
Ugandans Philip Adyaka, 25, and Sharif Bogere, 19, called their team Thursday night several hours after the team discovered their luggage was no longer at the hotel and the boxers did not show up at UIC Pavilion.
Uganda coach Kent Kibirige Musa said Friday that Adyaka had told him he was in Canada, while Bogere, the team captain, is “out of Chicago.”
Armenian Vachagan Avagyan, 25, has had no communication with his team since leaving Wednesday night.
The men were all here legally on 90-day tourist visas.
The teams reported the athletes as missing to the Chicago Police Department, but the police are treating the case as “a voluntary, unauthorized absence,” said Monique Bond, spokeswoman for the department. While police reports were filed, it was a matter of following protocol, she said.
Musa said the boxers did not provide many details about their departures.
“‘Why did you do that without asking me?'” Musa said he asked them. “They say, ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry,’ but give no explanation.”
He said he suspects they left to attempt to find better training outside of their homeland.
“They want to improve,” Musa said.
Ugandan teammate Edwards Akora, who lost Friday in a light-welterweight match to France’s Alexis Vastine, said Adyaka and Bogere had given no hints that they were going to leave the team.
“They just left us,” Akora said. “I don’t know where they are. They didn’t give us indication.”
Akora said he did not fear for their safety and suspected they were looking for better boxing opportunities.
“We’re not worried,” he said. “Maybe they are looking for greener pastures.”
Eduard Hambardzumyan, an Armenian team member who advanced after his light-welterweight victory, said Avagyan’s departure baffled him.
“No one expected this to happen,” Hambardzumyan said, according to translator Darja Saar, the secretary of training for the Estonian team who is familiar with the Armenian team.
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