7msports > Athletics Video > The sad story of Sierra Leone sprinter Thoronka

The sad story of Sierra Leone sprinter Thoronka

Wednesday, March 11 2015 by SNTV
  • Intro:

    Sierra Leone sprinter explains how he ended up living homeless in London after coming to Britain for the Commonwealth Games last year.

    Script:

    SOUNDBITE: (English), Jimmy Thoronka:

    Question: Where have you been sleeping?

    "Well, I've been sleeping in the park and buses, moving up and down because I don't have anywhere to sleep, no place to sleep. I was living sleeping in the park and buses."

    Question: Why did you decide to stay here after the Commonwealth Games?

    "I decided to stay here after the Commonwealth because when the Commonwealth Games finished there was no train - plane - to go back to Sierra Leone because of the break out of the disease Ebola in Sierra Leone. So when I hear that I lost my mother, adopted mother, that she is dead by the Ebola so I think everything. Because I lost my first parent during the war and I don't know where they are, whether they were dead or not or alive. So when I have another parent again and I think this is my parent that I heard that she is dead by the Ebola, so I was really worried. So I decided not to go back because I am not going to make it up life if I get back to Sierra Leone or I die. So that is why I decided I didn't go back. So, I was here, homeless, no place to sleep, nowhere to go, no food."

    SOUNDBITE: (English), Jimmy Thoronka:

    "I want to be one of the fastest in the world, to be one of the fastest sprinters in the world because of my feature, I want to be fast in the world, I want to run fast. So when all this did happen to me I think that I wasn't going to be fast again, I wasn't going to be doing sprinting again. So I said, 'that is the end of me', so this is when I tried to take a lot of paracetomol, like four or five paracetomol. So when I take like four or five I feel dizzy in my head, in my body, my kidneys are feeling some different way."

    SOUNDBITE: (English), Jimmy Thoronka:

    "I think because I have no place to go, nowhere to sleep I am afraid to go to the police. Because if I go to the police they will take me back to Sierra Leone because I don't have a family home I am not going to proceed my sprinting career because like, athletics in Sierra Leone is really not good - no facilities there. So I thinking if I get back, I will not make it up. I won't make it up. So rather I die here than go to die in Sierra Leone."

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