Australian Border Force officers are looking for eight athletes from Cameroon after they went missing from the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

A figure originally reported as five athletes is now eight – a third of Cameroon’s team – and police are on the case as many of the nation’s other athletes have been immediately sent home.

“The Cameroon team officials have already notified the Australian police of their situation, as well as their state officials back in the country,” spokesperson Simon Molombe said.

“In the meantime, the other two weightlifters of the delegation, along with the basketball players and officials have already left Australia and are presently airborne for Cameroon.”

The eight athletes are believed to be boxers and weightlifters and Games boss Peter Beattie urged them to comply with the law.

Commonwealth Games Federation chairman David Grevemberg said he was worried about the “safety and welfare” of the athletes but added that, for the moment at least, they were “still within their visas”.

Molombe said some of the athletes “just left in the night” and the news was “very, very embarrassing for Cameroon”.

At the 2012 London Olympics, seven athletes from Cameroon went missing.

Closer to home, at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, 14 athletes from Sierra Leone disappeared during competition but later handed themselves in.

Need a laugh?

This should do the job.

BBC Sport presenter Mike Bushell’s interview with some members of England’s swimming team went hilariously awry.

Just watch.

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The boxer who lost a nightclub fight

As more and more events come to an end, the Gold Coast’s bars and nightclubs are starting to fill up.

But Sean McComb won’t be going to either the popular Surfers Paradise or Broadbeach precincts after he was banned following a fight with a bouncer at famed nightclub Sin City.

McComb – at the Games to box for Northern Ireland – lost his post-2am skirmish and was found pinned to the ground by bouncers earlier this week.

We’re tipping this won’t be the only late-night incident over the next few days.

The question

New Zealand netball captain Katrina Grant was brought to tears after an interviewer suggested the Silver Ferns lacked pride.

The question came after New Zealand followed up a shock loss to Malawi with a 54-45 defeat against England.

“Of course we have pride in this black dress,” a tearful Grant said.

“It means a lot to every single one of us. We were little kids, young girls growing up playing netball and this is all we wanted.”

Grant added that the defeat was “hard to take” but the Silver Ferns can still win gold given the round-robin format of the netball.

What next?

More than 6000 athletes and officials have been staying in the athletes’ village, located beside the Gold Coast University Hospital and Griffith University.

But what happens when they leave?

As revealed in The Gold Coast Bulletin on Wednesday, an $80 million bone manufacturing plant is coming.

Top-of-the-range technology at the site will include a 3D printer that will allegedly be “capable of designing and printing out replica bones to be used as human replacements in surgery”.

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Thursday’s action

A brilliant athletics program headlines proceedings on Thursday, with the women’s 200m final (9.38pm) followed by the men’s at 9.56pm.

Can Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake get revenge after flopping in the 100m sprint? Time will tell.

Aussies Luke Matthews and Joseph Deng will aim for glory in the men’s 800m final (10.13pm) while Dani Stevens is a gold medal chance in the women’s discus throw final (8.40pm).

And don’t forget Brooke Stratton in the women’s long jump showdown at 7.55pm.

Local Melissa Wu is in action in the women’s 10m platform final (9.14pm) while both our men and women are in gold medal matches in the beach volleyball.

Australia will play Canada in the men’s clash at 4.30pm and the same opponents face off in the women’s decider at 8.30pm.

And there are also semi-finals in the women’s hockey, with Australia taking on India at 9.15pm.