Asian Games: Two Sri Lankan Athletes Missing in South Korea
A hockey player and a member of the beach volleyball team were unaccounted for at the time Sri Lanka's 80-strong contingent prepared to leave.
Two Sri Lankan sportsmen were missing from their Asian Games village and believed to have run away looking for jobs in the host nation South Korea, official sources said Monday.
A hockey player and a member of the beach volleyball team were unaccounted for at the time Sri Lanka's 80-strong contingent prepared to leave on Saturday. (Related: Three Nepalese disappear from Athletes' Village)
Official sources identified the missing hockey player as Prasanna Dissanayake, a Sri Lankan soldier, and speculated that he may have run away to look for a job in South Korea.
The missing beach volleyball player was not immediately identified, but was also thought to be a member of the armed forces.
Sri Lanka secured a gold and a bronze, both for cricket, at the games.
In 2004, a Sri Lankan handball team vanished during a tournament in Germany. Later it was discovered that the 23-member team had no authority to represent the island and had tricked the German organisers from the start.
Over a million Sri Lankans are employed abroad and sent back nearly $4.0 billion in the first half of this year. There have been instances of Sri Lankans leaving the island illegally to see more lucrative employment abroad.