Malaysia has drawn the ire of sailing's world governing
body after it denied entry for two Israeli windsurfers to participate
at the ISAF World Youth Championships in Langkawi from December 27 to
January 3.
World Sailing, in a statement on Wednesday, said it regretted the
treatment by Malaysia on Israelis Yoav Omer and Noy Drihan and warned
that discrimination at future events could even result in a country
losing its membership.“World Sailing deeply regret that two sailors from the Israel Yachting Association (IYA) were unable to compete at the 2015 Youth World Championships due to the conditions imposed by the Malaysian authorities.
“There is no place for discrimination of any kind in the worldwide sport of sailing and an obligation of membership of World Sailing is to act without discrimination.
“World Sailing will impose sanctions on any member who breaches his obligations in this area,” the governing body said, quoting Article 7 in its rule book, which states, "members are obligated to ensure that there shall be no discrimination on the grounds of race, religion or political affiliation against any competitor representing a Member National Authority".
Malaysia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel.
The World Sailing statement also reiterated a call from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) at its summit on October 17 last year against discrimination.
The IOC summit had "agreed that for all competitions taking place under the auspices of an International Federation or National Olympic Committee or their continental or regional associations, it has to be ensured that all athletes from all their members can enter a country to compete and are treated equally. It was agreed that should this rule not be respected, the event in question cannot serve as a qualification event for the Olympic Games or any other championship."
World Sailing confirms it will apply this guidance strictly to all future sailing regattas. – January 15, 2016.
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