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South Sudan Olympics selector claims ad deal swayed sprinter pick for Rio 2016

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By Cameron Clarke | Editor

July 30, 2016 | 2 min read

The secretary-general of South Sudan’s Olympic committee has said he felt under pressure to choose a runner for Rio 2016 because she was the star of a Samsung ad campaign.

As reported by the Guardian, Tong Chor Malek Deran has explained in interviews and in emails among athletes that he felt obliged to choose sprinter Margret Rumat Rumar Hassan despite the fact that she was not the country’s quickest competitor.

In the emails sent to athletes, he wrote: “We have selected Margret as she is Olympian (Nanjing [Youth Olympics] 2014) her activity was shown during our recognition by IOC in Kuala Lumpur [at the meeting where South Sudan was admitted to the Olympic Games], and moreover she has been contracted by Samsung to commercial on way to Rio, so we are to complete her story to Rio.”

In a radio interview with Australia’s ABC, he said: ““That’s correct. We choose her because already we have signed a contract with Samsung, that she is an Olympian.

“I repeat it. I repeat it: yes. And I strongly say yes. Because we had a contract already signed with Samsung. This is a violation of our contract.”

Samsung had denied that it had any influence over the makeup of South Sudan’s first ever Olympics team, saying in a statement: “Samsung does not have any sponsorship agreements with the South Sudanese Olympic team, and Samsung was not involved in the South Sudanese National Olympic Committee’s decisions.”

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