The Israeli wrestling delegation will not travel to the pre-Olympic tournament in Türkiye – – 2024-05-09 01:35:34

In a global context crossed by numerous demonstrations by militant sectors, a new sequel to the War between Israel and Hamas broke out in the sphere of sport: the Israeli wrestling team will not appear in the World Olympic Qualifier in Istanbul to be held between the 9th and on May 13 by order of the Security Agency, Shin Bet, as a result of growing tensions between national governments.

As it is the last contest with tickets to Paris in dispute, the binding measure buries the Olympic possibilities of the five wrestlers from the Hebrew-speaking nation who would compete in the northwestern Turkish city – Joshua Stuart Finesilver, Mitchell Louis Finesilver, Yuri Kalashnikov, Melkamu Fetene and Ilana Kratysh – unless they are beneficiaries of the invitation spots of the international federation, United World Wrestling (UWW).

In this regard, Kratysh, the first Olympic wrestler in the history of Israel, in Rio 2016, declared that she was suspicious of the decision and demanded: “I hope that the Israeli association (IWF) and the Olympic Committee (IOC) demand that the world federation Please consider and give us a free ticket to the Games.” In addition, she separated athletes from the war conflict by stating that “athletes should not be harmed by the situation.”

The only ecumenical pre-Olympic will deliver a total of 54 non-nominal places. Broken down, there will be three passages in each of the six categories of the three modalities, male and female freestyle wrestling and male Greco-Roman wrestling. Previously, the continental qualifiers and the 2023 Belgrade World Championships had awarded eight and five places by weight, respectively.

The defection from the competition was announced a day after Turkey suspended trade relations with Israel, including import and export relations, after which Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of “dictator” for “blocking” the ports.

Since March, Turkey has been on a list of countries to which Israel warns against traveling due to the potential risk of terrorist attacks. A report indicates that Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas political bureau, would be residing in the country since the meeting with Erdogan on April 20, precisely in Istanbul. At the end of October, the Israeli government had ordered the withdrawal of the entire diplomatic delegation from the Embassy in Ankara, including Ambassador Irit Lillian, after a comparison between the Holocaust and the bombings in Gaza made by the Turkish president.

At the end of April, Thomas Bach promised to allocate invitations to the National Olympic Committee of Palestine whenever it failed to qualify on the playing field, considering that the destruction of sports facilities prevented proper training of athletes, a reason that differs from what happened with the Israeli fighters. So far, the IOC president has not referred to the case.