Olympic champion Marie-Jose Perec, fleeing the Sydney Games, and her fiance were questioned by police in Singapore on Thursday over an airport assault on a television cameraman, Australian Channel 9 television said. Footage of the incident broadcast by Channel 9, which had put the cameraman on the same flight from Australia as the Frenchwoman, clearly showed a fist winding up for a punch. Perec's sponsor Reebok earlier said Perec had decided to leave Sydney late on Wednesday after a man had forced himself into her hotel room and threatened her.

''Because of this unfortunate incident she has decided to withdraw from Saturday's competition,'' a Reebok statement said. However, the hotel on Sydney's Darling Harbour where Perec had been staying said they had received no report of any security breach.
Meanwhile, French athletics chiefs pleaded to Marie-Jose Perec to call them, after the reigning 200m and 400m Olympic champion left just 36 hours before the heats of the 400m, the only title she is defending in Sydney.
The head of the French delegation Michel Vial said: “She has not officially forfeited (the race) and we would like her to call us.” Perec, 32, won an unprecedented 200-400 metres double four years ago in Atlanta and the 400 metres title in 1992 in Barcelona. She was expected to be Australian Cathy Freeman's main rival over one lap in Sydney.
Bureau Report