The Second International Junior Sports Festival of Russian immigrants, held in Moscow this month, proved to be a big success for the team of Russian immigrants to Israel.
The delegation of 24 Israeli juniors competed in 10 different sports events, including mini-football, volleyball, table tennis, arm-wrestling, aerobic gymnastics, badminton, chess and checkers.
One of the most impressive achievements came in the volleyball when Israel won the silver medal, losing to Latvia in the final.
Meanwhile, 15-year-old Olga Lenskaya, who runs for Maccabi Rishon Lezion, won the silver medal in the 100-meters, coming in at 12.63 seconds.
And future star Dima Kroyter, also aged just 15-years-old, jumped 6.82 meters in the long jump and 2.05 meters in the high jump, finishing in fourth place and also receivinga medal.
Awards were given for first to sixth places, as in the Olympics. It was a personal success for Kroyter's coach Anatoly Shafran, who was recently chosen as Coach of the Year by the Israeli Atheletic Federation.
A total of 41 nations were represented at the Games, a massive increase on the 28 countries that competed at the first International Junior Sports Festival of Russian immigrants two years ago.
In all, some 1,000 athletes from all seven continents converged on Moscow for the event.
The solemn opening ceremony was attended by Moscow Mayor Yuriy Lushckov, and vice-president of the Russian Olympic Committee, Gennady Aleshin.
Predictibaly, Brazil won the mini-soccer competition, while Slovakia triumped in the aerobic gymnastics event.
