Baltacha, two others withdraw

Sep 27, 2010 |

London, Sept. 26: Fearing a dengue epidemic and worried about hygiene in the Games Village, Great Britain’s number one female tennis player Elena Baltacha pulled out of the crisis-hit Delhi Games.

Elena said she saw the pictures of the filthy living conditions in the athletes’ quarters and read the reports about the outbreak of dengue fever and decided to skip the event.

“It’s just the hygiene, the dengue fever, all that kind of stuff,” Baltacha was quoted as saying in the Daily Telegraph.

Elena suffers from a genetic liver condition that has left her immune system compromised and the Scot tennis star said it would be too high a risk. “If I didn’t have a liver condition, of course I’d go,” she said.

Meanwhile, Australian cyclist Travis Meyer and table tennis player Stephanie Sang also joined the growing list of athletes withdrawing from the Games in Delhi.

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