World No 6 long jumper Anju Bobby George's preparations for the World Athletics Final in Monaco this weekend suffered a setback when she was robbed of all her valuables, including her passport, in Paris.
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning when Anju's bag went missing at the Charolety Stadium, near the Paris University, where she was training with her husband and coach Bobby.
"We were to book the flight tickets to Monaco after the training session and the bag contained all the documents, passports and credit cards," Anju, India's first medallist in a World Athletics Championships told PTI over phone from Paris on Thursday.
Anju, who won a bronze medal in the World Championships at Paris late last month, and Bobby were training in Paris for this weekend's Monaco meet, where the cream of world athletics will be seen in action.
Taken aback by the theft, Anju said the stadium was almost empty when they were winding up the session by about 11.30 am.
"As usual we kept the bag at a place where we could see it. But it disappeared from the middle of the ground by the time we finished jogging around the track," Anju said.
"The police is yet to crack the case," the distraught athlete added.
"We had noticed two youngsters moving around, but we thought they were security guards. But later the stadium officials said they were Fire Force personnel," Anju said.
The star athlete said the incident came as a real shock as the stadium has tight security in place including closed circuit cameras.
Bobby George said the robbery has somewhat derailed Anju's training, as her schedule has gone haywire in the last two days what with running around to arrange money, new passports and tickets.
"We will train one last time here in the evening before boarding the flight to Monaco tomorrow morning," Bobby said.
Both Anju and Bobby thanked the Indian Embassy officials in Paris and the Sports Ministry officials in New Delhi for the prompt help that came their way.
While the embassy arranged for temporary passports for Anju and Bobby, the Sports Ministry pitched in by sanctioning some emergency funds to help out the star couple.
Anju had produced her season's best leap of 6.70m to win the historic bronze in Paris, behind France's Eunice Barber and World No 1 Tatyana Kotova.
"After dedicating her medal to the nation, she has now dedicated her passport to Paris," said Bobby, summing up the drama.
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