THE Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson was outrun yesterday by a gang of Italian Gypsies who pounced on him and made off with his wallet and £5,000 as he was strolling down the Via Veneto in Rome.
The former world champion, who was stripped of his Olympic title after failing a drug test, had stopped at a money exchange when he was surrounded by about half a dozen Gypsies. A ten-year-old girl attracted his attention while a man grabbed his wallet and fled.
Johnson gave chase and managed to catch the girl but the man with his wallet was too fast for him.
He marched the child to a police station, but appeared relaxed about the incident afterwards. “It was only money,” he said. “It was