Exhausted and depressed, Zola Budd returned to...

Exhausted and depressed, Zola Budd returned to her family home in South Africa after abandoning her controversial bid to run for Britain in the Seoul Olympics.

Budd arrived on an overnight flight from London and drove with her brother to her hometown, Bloemfontein, where she rose to prominence as a barefoot teen-age sensation six years ago.

“I feel angry and bitter,” she said. “I am angry at the fact that I am seen as a representative of South Africa and its problems.”

Her decision to quit world track, at least temporarily, removes the threat of an anti-Budd boycott of the Summer Olympics by other African nations in protest of South Africa’s policy of racial separation. It also nullifies a threat by world track officials to bar Britain’s entire track team unless British officials suspended Budd.

Budd said she will stay out of competition for at least a year, adding: “I want a long holiday in which to recover and decide about my future.”