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Some British press reactions were odd. The Daily Worker seemed cross with the Russians for canceling the meet, while conservative papers were cross with the Foreign Office for its handling of the case. But officials were powerless to alter the stern demands of British justice, and Soviet sportsmen refused to reconsider their withdrawal from the track meet. Someone at the Soviet embassy kept the controversy on the front pages by booking air passage from London to Copenhagen in the name of Nina Ponomaryeva, but no one who even looked like Nina made the plane.
At week's end Nina was nowhere to be found, and her teammates were packing for their trip home. Said straight-faced Head Coach Gabriel Korobkov: "This is a sorry blow for sports. We are not political—well, we are only a little political. We must now revise our entire Olympic training plans."