Horseshoe round:
Under heavy security, Israel's fencing team landed today (Thursday) in Antalya, Turkey, ahead of the European Championships that will open this weekend.
The delegation also includes five athletes serving in the military.
After the first publication in "Israel Today", about the fact that the athletes serving in the IDF had received a letter banning them from leaving the country, a campaign of pressure began to change the decision, which eventually led to them being allowed to go out and compete in the important competition.
Behind the scenes, for the past 24 hours, Deputy Sports Director Hanan Danziger and Chairman of the Sports Lobby MK Simon Davidson, dealt with the story from the moment they were approached and to everyone's delight, reached an understanding with the relevant authorities and the IDF on the importance of travel, along with reinforcement Security.
As you may recall, the Anti-Terrorism Headquarters issued a stern travel warning to Turkey, and specifically to the city of Istanbul.
The warning was exacerbated to the highest level along with an explicit call not to reach the destinations, all this just before the trip to the European Championships, after which the soldiers received the message that they were staying in the country.
The main thing is the smile, Photo: Courtesy of the Saif Association in Israel
Among the athletes who will still take part in the competition, one can find the runner-up of the world youth champion Nicole Fagin, who together with Adel Bogdanov were part of the Dakar team that won the world championship for girls and still serve in the IDF, Lior Druck, David Fromgretz and Yonatan Cohen.
The fencing association said: "We would like to thank everyone for their help and especially Hanan Danziger from the Ministry of Sports and Simon Davidson who were in touch with us from the first moment and worked until the solution was found. Now we are focused on the championship, hoping to get as far as possible."
Davidson told Israel Today: "A few days ago, I received a request from Irena Tal, the general manager of the fencing association to help with the matter, and we immediately began working with the relevant parties.
I am so happy that the efforts were successful and the delegation traveled fully to the European Championships. "
"Athletes work hard all year for competitions of this kind so we did everything to allow every athlete on the team to compete of course provided they meet the required security conditions. Thank you Hanan Danzinger from the Ministry of Culture and Sports for his many efforts and work day in and day out And we are waiting to see them back in Israel and with the help of the name with some medals. "
MK Simon Davidson, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
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