Triathlete Shachar Sagiv has the first Israeli athlete to compete in Saudi Arabia, the Israel Olympic Committee said Sunday, the latest sign of the development of casual ties between the former foes.
Sagiv competed in Neom on the same day that an Israeli tennis player faced a Saudi opponent in Bahrain, as the two countries without a diplomat appear to be comfortably on the court.
Olympic committee president Yael Arad on Saturday called Sagiv’s presence at the Saudi NEOM stage of the Super League Triathlon a “breakthrough. “
“Last year, we saw many Arab states settle for a foreign tournament meaning Israelis,” he said in a statement. “This is a developing trend and the genuine strength of normalization among nations, and especially among peoples. “
A Saudi official did not respond to a request for comment.
Sagiv, 28, was pulled from the race after falling off a motorcycle ride, unable to achieve his goal of improving his ranking, his coach Lior Cohen wrote on Facebook. “Shachar came here to make professional history and not just diplomatic history. “Cohen added.
— סעודיה בעברית | السعودية بالعبرية (@SaudiAInHebrew) October 25, 2022
In November, Shachar Sagiv is expected to compete in the Bermuda Triathlon World Championship Series from his efforts to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
Sagiv’s involvement comes amid the hypothesis about long-term bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, after the Gulf kingdom opened its airspace to Israeli jets in July and recently allowed an Israeli businessman to enter its borders.
Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel and did not adhere to the Abraham Accords negotiated through the United States in 2020, in which the Jewish state identified ties with two of the kingdom’s neighbors, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. the Arab League’s decades-old position of not identifying formal ties with Israel until the standoff with the Palestinians is resolved.
Meanwhile, in a sports-related drama involving the two countries, emerging Saudi tennis star Yara Al-Hogbani, 18, beat Israeli Isabell Bilaus, 14, on Saturday in the semifinals of the J5 Isa Town tournament that recently took position in Bahrain.
Al-Hogbani is Saudi Arabia’s first female tennis player, according to a report by Arab News.
— Arabic News| Sport (@ArabNewsSport) October 30, 2022
Al-Hogbani and Ermakova already met in the J4 Isa Town tournament of the year. Al-Hogbani beat Ermakova 6-1, 6-0 at the time.
Al-Hogbani was born in Ohio in the United States and now lives in Riyadh. He has played tennis since the age of four and turned professional at 14.
“I grew up in a very large circle of relatives, with six brothers and an older sister. We were a very active circle of relatives who enjoyed cycling, swimming, tennis and football,” he told Arab News earlier this month, adding that his tennis hobby began with his brothers, who played tennis competitively.
At last year’s Tokyo Olympics, Saudi judoka Tahani Alqahtani defied expectations by facing Israel’s Raz Hershko after other athletes at the games withdrew to compete against Israel.
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