An athlete from Uganda who went missing last week from his pre-Olympic training camp in Osaka Prefecture has been found and headed back to his home country late Wednesday, officials said.

The mayor of Izumisano, which hosted the training camp, said at a press conference that Julius Ssekitoleko initially expressed hopes of staying in Japan but was later convinced to go back to Uganda during a meeting with the head of the Ugandan team.

Confirming a man found in the central prefecture Mie Prefecture on Tuesday by police was Ssekitoleko, the Ugandan Embassy in Tokyo has said, "Any issues to do with alleged absconding from the duty he had been flown to perform in Japan and related disappearance from the training camp, will be handled appropriately upon his return."