Israel Matzav

Egyptian wrestler bites Israeli in the back, loses anyway

As a teenager, when I was up late on Saturday nights, I often watched wrestling on Boston's Channel 38. But I never saw a move as dirty as this one.

In Italy on Saturday, Israeli wrestler Ilana Kartysh won the gold medal in the Golden Grand Prix wrestling tournament. In the semi-final round, she met an Egyptian who fought dirtily and dishonorably. 

In the semi-final, Kartysh met the African champion, Enas Mostafa of Egypt. At the beginning of the match, Mostafa refused to shake hands with her. During the fight, she broke two of the Israeli's fingers and bit her in the back – causing her to bleed. At the end of the match, unsurprisingly, she refused to shake hands with her again.

" I can't remember such dirty behavior in sports," Kartysh told Ynet after the fight. "In wrestling you must shake hands at the beginning of a match and at the end of a match. But not only did she refuse to shake my hand, she even broke my fingers and bit me until I began bleeding.

"On the ground, when she was on top of me, she just bit me. I have her teeth marks on my back, and I began bleeding too," the Israeli wrestler adds. "Because of her dirty behavior my desire to beat her grew stronger." 

"From the beginning of the match, when she didn't come over to shake my hand – I knew something was wrong. I felt some kind of hatred towards me and I don’t know why, maybe it has to do with politics and maybe not, but it's never happened to me before. She really attacked me.

Maybe it had to do with politics? Maybe? Or maybe it was just anti-Semitism.

And where were the referees when this happened?

But Kartysh beat the Egyptian, and beat the next opponent too, and won the gold medal. Good for her!

Labels: anti-Semitism, unsportsmanlike conduct

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:11 AM