With the Olympic Torch Relay almost upon us, it was with interest that we heard from well-respected online journalism professor and practitioner, Paul Bradshaw, that one of the runners was due to carry an Olympic torch through the streets of the Isle of Wight was a little mysterious.
Most of the people who are taking part in the Isle of Wight sections appear to be highly inspirational. From their profiles on the London 20102 site, we can see that they’re people who have given lots of themselves for the benefit of others.
That said, there’s a bit of a scandal brewing Nationally about how many of the torch carriers appear to have been placed there by companies that have sponsored the Olympic events that Paul and Help Me Investigate have been looking into.
No profile – then vanishes
One things that unites these mystery runners is a lack of personal details in their profiles. These profiles are supposed to explain why they have been chosen to carry the torch. Nominations for runners to take part were invited to give inspirational individuals ‘their moment to shine’.
It was Aslan Khabliev from Piestany, in Slovakai that Paul brought to our attention, who was originally-listed as taking part in the Newport leg. Aslan is found online to be a director of Sky Media among other things.
Well, after what appeared to be an interesting lead, we went off to do our own digging.
We quickly found that Aslan Khabliev has now vanished from the Newport section. In fact, his name can’t even be found on this London2012 site at all.
Two new people – One a mystery
Our research found that the Newport section has had two names appear since the original list appeared – Luda Khablieva and Jonathan Eggett.
Jonathan is a 40 year old from Eastleigh who has raised considerable amount of money for charities over the years, as his fully detailed profile tells us.
Luda? Well we can tell you nothing in detail about Luda beyond him/her being 57 and from Pully, Luasanne, which is located in Switzerland. Beyond that, his/her profile is completely blank.
Can’t be found
We can’t even find any references to Luda in an Internet search (beyond some Websites saying that they can’t find out anything about him/her!).
Strangely their surname is also remarkably close – all but the same except having an extra ‘a’ at the end of it – to the runner who disappeared, Aslan Khabliev.
This could, of course, all be completely innocent, it’s just with the blank profile, it seems a little strange.
