Sense of a great sports event

Approximately 5300 Jewish athletes from all around the world gathered together for the 18th Maccabiah Games, held in Tel Aviv between July 13 and 23rd. Finland was one of the participating countries, represented by a delegation of 37 people who were competing in futsal, golf, soccer and athletics.

Ambassador Per-Mikael Engberg hosted a reception at his residence honouring the delegation and especially its two gold-medal winners Heli and Ella Mishael. Heli Mishael won gold in women's 100m and her little sister Ella achieved a gold medal in both 400 and 800m races of girls under 18. In addition to that Ella Mishael also achieved silver in 200 and bronze in 100 meters.

The Finnish Maccabiah team presented the Ambassador with an official Maccabiah uniform, which he proceeded to wear without hesitation--much to the team's delight. The delegates cheerfully expressed their feelings about representing Finland in the Maccabiah games, stating that it had been a wonderful experience.

One of the famous names in this year's games was an American swimmer Jason Lezak who chose to skip the world championship games in order to participate the Maccabiah event.