2015 World Sailing Youth Championships - Short by one team
by Guy Nowell, Sail-World.com on 28 Dec 2015
Yoav Omer (ISR) - Image: Benny Tirosh SW
A record number of 76 nations have registered to sail at the 45th Youth Sailing World Championships in Langkawi, Malaysia surpassing the previous record of 67 set in Tavira, Portugal last year. Regrettably, because of restrictions imposed by the Malaysian Government which ISAF/World Sailing was unable to overturn, the Israeli team of Yoav Omer (Gold Medal, Boys RS:X, and Heller Hadar, seventh, Girls, 2014 ISAF Youth Worlds, Portugal) is not one of them.
The World Sailing (formerly ISAF) Youth Championships organisers have been accused of forbidding Israeli sailors from carrying their country’s flag or wearing any symbol on their attire and boards to show their country of origin. It was reported that Israel’s national anthem would also not be played if either athletes won the gold medal, as is customary in sporting competitions. 48hrs before the start of the event Malaysia Immigration had still not issued visas for the Israeli team, hiding behind 'lack of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and Israel' as an excuse.
A total of 425 sailors will compete across the nine fleets at the Youth Worlds with racing scheduled to commence at 10:00 local time on 29 December following tonight's (28 December) Opening Ceremony at Lagenda Park.
This issue is far from over with World Sailing VP Chris Atkins preparing to report back to the full World Sailing executive.
Mazel tov!
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