Abscond like an athlete after party (2,1,6)
I believe the answer is:
do a runner
'abscond' is the definition.
(I know that abscond is a more specific form of do a runner)
'an athlete after party' is the wordplay.
'an' becomes 'a'.
'athlete' becomes 'runner' (type of athlete).
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'party' becomes 'do' (do can informally mean a party).
'a'+'runner'='arunner'
'arunner' put after 'do' is 'DO A RUNNER'.
'like' is the link.
(Other definitions for do a runner that I've seen before include "Scarper (informal)" , "Embroider a table cloth" , "bolt" , "Zambezi cataract" , "beat it" .)