For the first time in history, an Israeli athlete took the podium today (Saturday) in a competition in Indonesia, appearing with the national uniform and the country's flag flying next to his name, as first published in "Sharel Hayom".
The one who did this was track cyclist Michael Yaakovlev, who won the bronze medal in the keirin competition in the second round of the Jakarta Cup of Nations.
The gold medal was won by the bronze medalist from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, the Dutchman Harry Lavriessen, and the Malaysian Azizi Mong finished second.
Yaakovlev with the medal, photo: https://www.israelhayom.co.il/sport/other-sports/article/13735018
As mentioned, this is the first time that an Israeli athlete competes with national symbols in Indonesia.
To this day, the Muslim country with which Israel has no diplomatic relations, flatly refused to allow this, when only recently did the goal scorer Sergey Richter cancel his participation in the World Cup because of it.
The Olympic badminton player Misha Zilberman also entered the 2015 World Championships in Indonesia at the last minute, but the game time and the live monitoring were not published, and the Israeli flag did not appear next to his name at the end of the game, as he was also playing on a side court.
The Israeli track cycling team competing in Indonesia includes Rotem Tana who finished ninth in the elimination race yesterday, Michael Yakovlev and Vlad Loginov.
This is an important competition on the way to the Olympics, as it is one of 9 competitions whose ranking will determine the criterion for the Paris 2024 Games, with the criterion consisting of 3 Nations Cup competitions this year, 3 next year, the European Championships and the World Championship.
The whole last step is also great news for the Israel under-20 soccer team, which is supposed to play in Indonesia for the first time ever in the Mondialeto this May.
Recently, efforts are being made to obtain the entry visas and allow the team to play like all the other teams.
Yaakovlev (left) on the podium,
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