MANY of the world's top athletes are likely to ignore pleas to take part in an international meeting in the war torn Bosnian capital of Sarajevo today.
Despite a request to elite athletes from Primo Nebiolo, president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, who together with the International Olympic Committee have organised the Solidarity Meeting for Sarajevo, only about 50 are expected to compete.
IAAF officials were putting a brave face on matters yesterday before a specially chartered plane left Milan, the venue of Saturday's final Grand Prix meeting, for Sarajevo.
The meet will be held at the Kosevo Stadium, stage for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Winter Olympics 12 years ago. Although the electronic scoreboard has been destroyed and the floodlight pylons out of operation, a new track has been laid and between them the IAAF and the IOC have provided £1.5 million to restore the stadium.
With no entry charge, a capacity crowd of 50,000 is expected. While mainly eastern European and African athletes, such as Olympic 1,500 metres champion Nonreddine Morceli, of Algeria, and Daniel Komen, of Kenya, who set a world 3,000 metres record last weekend, have pledged themselves to the meeting, many others have not.
American Dennis Mitchell, a 100 metre finalist at the Atlanta Olympics, said he was staying away because he feared for his safety. "Although track and field is my life, it's not worth my life."
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