Putting things into perspective: National Athletic Federations organise and supervise the sport of track & field referred to as Athletics in a given country. Federations do organise national championships to determine who are the best Lebanese athletes. Evidently at those championships only Lebanese are ranked. However, all federations around the world have welcomed foreigners to compete at national championships as guests (no ranking). Lebanese athletes (Gretta Taslakian, Mirvat Hamzeh, Saria Traboulsi and many others) have participated at Romanian, German and Turkish national championships as guests and have broken national records. On this base, Inter Lebanons President Antoine el Khazen has requested from the Lebanese Athletic Federation in writing the participation of 3 foreign guests to the cross country Lebanese championship. The Lebanese Federation has accepted graciously Inter Lebanons request. On race day, one of our foreign guests Aregu Abbatte (Ethiopian) was surprised by the vehement opposition of some Lebanese runners on the start line. The main one opposing her participation (as guest with no ranking) was Elga Trad. This by itself is eloquent in terms of un-sportsmanship. The Federation had to take out Aregu from the womens race after Elga and her clubs teammates threatened to withdraw from the race. I understand the Federations stance but certainly not the runners one. When my daughter and runner (Carine Bejjani) participating to this race expressed her frustration regarding Aregus ineligibility to participate by saying in French : Domage or in English Its a shame, Elga replied laconically: quote I could have brought my Srilankan worker as well unquote. This statement was simply outrageous and shocking. It revealed the real soul of the one who said that her idols were Gandhi and Mother Theresa (sic). For the record the 2 other foreign guests running in other age categories, a German girl and an American boy competed (with no ranking) since no one of the other runners have opposed their participation. The Federation was not at fault on that one and has acted professionally. Lebanon and Lebanese should get used to the fact that most of their people are shamefully racist. It is everyones duty to expose and fight this horrible stigma. Thank you Ziad Makhoul for giving journalism a true sense and purpose.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Feb 2014 07:01:22 +0000
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