South Africa will send a 112-member team to compete in the 9th Maccabiah which opens here July 9 but not all of its members will be able to participate. Athletes in track and field events have been barred from competition by the International Amateur Athletics Federation which has jurisdiction over those sports in international meets.
Although the ban has created an uproar among Jewish sportsmen in South Africa, the Israel Maccabiah Council is powerless to reverse it without jeopardizing the future eligibility of all track and field athletes in Maccabiah games. South Africa is barred from competing in most international sports events because of its apartheid policy.
The fact that the Maccabiah is an exclusively Jewish event that involves neither color bars nor politics failed to persuade the IAAF to change its position.
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