Stranded overseas, Canadian runner bides time awaiting clearance for return home to Australia

Andrea Seccafien misses the simple pleasures of home — having her own space, changing her wardrobe, using her own kitchen and spending time with her fiancé. But it could be Christmas Day before her and Jamie Whitfield are reunited in their Melbourne apartment.

The Canadian distance runner is among more than 45,000 Australian citizens stranded across the world and registered with the government as wanting to return home.

The Australian border has been closed since March 2020 to all non-permanent residents in a bid to contain coronavirus and Melbourne is currently in its sixth lockdown after struggling to curb an outbreak of the highly contagious Delta variant.

Seccafien, who lives in the city on a temporary visa, had to apply for a travel exemption to leave for North America on April 11 to try to qualify for Tokyo 2020, her second Olympics.

To return, she also had to seek a border permit that has been "under consideration" for nearly a month. After ending her season Aug. 31 in Italy, the Guelph, Ont., native travelled to Berlin, Germany, where she is cat sitting at her brother's house while he and his partner are in Canada.

"I don't want people to feel bad for me because I knew this was the situation," Seccafien told CBC Sports this week. "I chose to leave, and I chose to go to the [Tokyo] Olympics. I left because I had to. I'm [an Athletics Canada]-funded athlete and would lose my funding if I didn't do this.

"There are people who have been stranded a lot longer than I have. People separated from their children, people who have missed saying goodbye to their [dying] parents. A lot of terrible, heart-wrenching situations."