Paris: France's triple Olympic gold medallist Marie-Jose Perec said on Thursday she will never set foot in Australia again, claiming she was forced to flee the country before her much-hyped clash with Cathy Freeman because of the behaviour of Australians towards her in the street. And Perec also took a swipe at Freeman who took her 400m title by saying she would have won had she competed at the Sydney Olympics. Perec told L'Equipe: "People made threatening gestures and started following me. Several times, in a supermarket, there were problems. You can put up with words. But I was really frightened. That's what made me leave. Suddenly, that morning (Wednesday September 20), I took my bag and nothing more counted other than leaving even the gold medal I had come for. "I will never set foot there again," said Perec, who said that Australia had been the land of her dreams. Perec said she would have run inside 49 seconds had she competed in the final Freeman's winning time was 49.11sec.AFP
