Flee from social event held by second-rate athlete (2,1,6)
I believe the answer is:
do a runner
'flee' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'social event held by second-rate athlete' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'social' could be 'do' (both can mean a party) and 'do' is found within the answer.
'event' could be 'run' (run is a kind of event) and 'run' is found in the answer.
'second-rate' could be 'a' (2nd letter of 'rate') and 'a' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
'from' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for do a runner that I've seen before include "flee" , "Avoid paying" , "Scarper (informal)" , "beat it" , "Scarper (without paying?)" .)