Freetown — Two local athletes, Solomon Bayoh and Michaela Kargbo will represent the country in this year's Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

This was confirmed by heads of both the Sierra Leone Athletics Association (SLAA) and the National Olympic Committee of Sierra Leone (NOCSLE).

The confirmation has cleared recent rumour that Gibrilla Pato Bangura and Ola Sesay would be representing the country at the Games.

It was said that Ola Sesay, who is of Sierra Leonean decent but based in the United States, decided to choose Salone as her second choice because she was left out of the American team.

According to the Vice President of NOCSLE, Patrick Coker, there are problems which make it impossible for the two to represent the country at the Games.

"Sesay is not having a Sierra Leonean passport while Bangura is not qualified. Secondly, names of any athlete planning to go to the Games should have earlier been in the Games' system.

"We have already written to the government to inform them of who and who will be representing us at the Games and the government has responded," Coker added.

With the country not having any qualified athlete for the Games, Bayoh and Michaela are going to the Games as the unqualified athletes.

In an interview with Concord Sports, Bayoh said he is ready and determined to compete with big names in the world and spring up surprise.

According to Michaela, "This is an opportunity for me to follow the footsteps of Eunice Barber in the high jump and I want to make use of this chance." Michaela will compete in the high jump and the 100 meters while Bayoh will compete in 100 and 200 meters.