A delegation of 28 athletes from the Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club participated at the 20th quadrennial Maccabiah Games in Israel from July 4 to July 18. The Lithuanian team took part in 7 different sports and won six medals, two gold in the youth singles competitions and with Israeli table tennis athlete Janin Karmazin in doubles, won by Lithuanian table tennis player Neta Alon. She won another bronze medal in women’s doubles matches with teammate Vanesa Ražanskytė.

In badminton Mark Šames took silver in singles matches and Daniel Tarachovskij with Ukraine’s Natalija Ruzgaizer won bronze in mixed doubles matches.

Chess master Eduardas Rozentalis won another bronze for Lithuanian Makabi.

Our mini-soccer team (top rated among European teams) took a very respectable fifth place, defeating Mexico 6:6 due to a penalty on July 16. During matches the Lithuanian Makabi mini-soccer team beat Cuba, Gibraltar and Sweden, lost to Australia and tied with Brasil but failed to secure the right to compete for bronze because of an overall worse proportion of goals.

During the Maccabiah Games members of the delegation, Lithuanian Jewish Community chairwoman Faina Kukliansky and leaders of Litvak organizations in Israel participated in a meeting with Lithuanian embassy consular officer Aleksandras Kubada.

The official closing ceremony for the 20th Maccabiah Games takes place July 17.

Semionas Finkelšteinas, president
Lithuanian Makabi Athletics Club