The European Championships for Olympic disciplines held in Munich are currently in full swing, and tomorrow (Monday) the Israeli athletics team will make its way into the competition. 15 sportsmen and women will compete in the competitions between August 15 and 21, and the athletics association is optimistic about the tournament, as the current team is seen as the strongest team that Israel has ever sent to the competition.
The first representatives of the Israeli delegation tomorrow will be the long distance runners. Maor Tiori will compete in the marathon that will start at 11:30, and an hour later the men’s men’s marathon will take place, and Israel will have six representatives: Maru Tefri, Girma Amre, Geshao Ayala, Yimar Gethon, Bokito Melda and Omar Ramon.
The bronze medal winner from the World Championships, Luna Chamtai-Salpeter, will focus on the upcoming championship in the 10,000 run, which she won in the previous championship, and hope to retain the title as a run that will open at 22:48, in a run that will also include Slamwit Bayolin-Safry as another representative. On Tuesday, the runner, Diana Weissman, will compete in the 100m heats in the semi-finals, which will be held at 21:35, and earlier that evening, the high jumper, Yonatan Kapitolnik, will hope to restore the qualification for the finals of the World Championships, when he competes in the preliminary stage (19:35). On Wednesday, Hana Minenko, who is ranked fourth in Europe, will compete in the qualifying stage of the triple jump at 13:35.
Another name that will attract a great deal of interest in the delegation is, of course, the new world champion in the 200m race under the age of 20, Blessing Afrifa, who will take to the track on Thursday evening, for the semi-finals in his division, when this time he is of course competing against graduates.
A day before the start of the athletics competitions at the European Championships in Munich, he commented Rogel Nahumthe director of the achievement department at the Athletics Association, regarding the state of the Israeli delegation: “When we talk about the “highest quality delegation ever” it is of course only on paper, and we will be able to check its results at the end of the competition. At the same time, it must be noted that there have never been so many athletes in the delegation to the European Championships who are ranked so high in Europe in their results, 7 male and female athletes in the top 10 in their respective branches, and this is the reason that sets her apart from the delegations in the past.”
The competition will be broadcast on the different channels of Sport 5