Iranian swimmer shuns Israeli rival

[tashakor]

The Iranian swimmer, Mohammad Bidarian, has refused to compete with his Israeli rival in the 100-meter freestyle event in Croatia.

Bidarian advanced to the semifinal in the 100-meter breaststroke event after he clocked a time of 52.25 seconds on Thursday morning.

Despite the fact that he had a chance to get an Olympic berth for his country, the 19-year-old Iranian national gave up the competition as he was grouped with an Israeli swimmer on Thursday evening.

Another Iranian swimmer, Mohammad Alirezaei, gained the first Olympic berth in swimming for Iran at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on Thursday.

Alirezaei, 22, qualified for the games after he clocked a time of 1.03.03 minutes in the 100-meter breaststroke event and improved his personal best by 0.89 seconds.

Top swimmers from 13 countries have taken part in the international event which began in the Croatian city of Dubrovnik on July 10 and will conclude on July 13.

[Ali]

i like the attitude but he just stuffed up his olympic dream

[KasraKhan]

this kid will be treated like a hero by the IR

[izadi17]

why does it matter that much to him ?

[Babak agha]

very childish if you ask me. Teymourian was playing with a Israeli and nothing happend to him, so why would swimming in a contest were there is also a Jew harm this guy..?

[soniq]

fvcking bullshit...if we want to own israel why not compete and beat them

[Nokhodi]

Sad, because this kid could easily have beaten him.

[mf_doom]

pathetic absolutely pathetic. When will our athletes stop acting like pawns for the government?

[EKBATAN]

very childish if you ask me. Teymourian was playing with a Israeli and nothing happend to him, so why would swimming in a contest were there is also a Jew harm this guy..?

well IR has their own stupid loop holes

they dont want you to compete against them cuz they dont want to recognize israel as a country. In teymourian's case, the guy was a team mate and thats ok cuz he's not competing against Israeli team.

[Shamim]

Sad, because this kid could easily have beaten him.

pathetic absolutely pathetic. When will our athletes stop acting like pawns for the government?

Exactly, thats ridiculous and sad, why do we have to be more arab than arabs????

[Pharaoh]

I'm sure nobody's happier about it than the Israeli swimmer.

[Demis-11]

if he wanted to show distaste to his competitor...he shouldve blown him out of the water and shunned him if he came up for a handshake or refuse to talk to him...this is still extremely childish but at least its not missing out on the olympics!!!

[CULOOCHE]

Poor kid, he would've competed at the Olympics.

[Arian]

fvcking bullshit...if we want to own israel why not compete and beat them

exactly!!

[Arzhang]

fvcking bullshit...if we want to own israel why not compete and beat them

i totally agree with this mentality, turning your back and not competing is cowardly if you ask me. if you have such strong feelings against israel, then let that adrenaline take over and win the race. no better way to beat an opponent.