Maariv 15/01/08

"The Terrorists did not damage (bother) us like CC"

Four days until the National Ice Skating Team leaves for the European Championships, complains the Chairman of the Federation, Boris Chait, of the freezing cold in the facility in Metulla. Shmuel Ben Shachar, GM of CC: "It’s a cheek. I am talking to you from Miluim and Chait is sitting in New Jersey preaching morality to us"

Nir Shuali

Again tension in the North, in the Israeli ice kingdom. Four days before the leaving to the Ice Skating European Championships in Zagreb, an argument has broken out between the Federation and the National Israeli team and between the heads of CC in Metulla, the home of the winter sports in Israel.
The last argument that broke out was on the evening before the National team flew to the winter Olympics in Torino 2006, and it seems that also now the sides cannot get on with each other.
This may seem far fetched and marginal, but we must remember that the immigration from the former USSR gave a big push to the sport of ice skating in Israel.
CC is full of children skating, and there exists even a successful role model, in the dance couple who retired last year, Galit Chait and Sergei Sahanovsky, who won bronze medal in the World Championships and represented Israel in three winter Olympics. There is a large following in the public who are waiting for the broadcasts of the European and World Championships taking place in the next few months. In the past, there have been disagreements regarding the cost of the usage of the ice in the Centre and regarding the terms of skating in the Centre. Today, the main complaint of the sportsmen is regarding the very very cold in the ice arena. To the request of the Federation and the sportsmen to heat the place is answered by: "We can't".
Galit Chait, the coach today of the couple who are supposed to push forward to the top in the world arena, the brother and sister team Alexandra and Roman Zaretsky, is very stressed because her skaters cannot practice for Zagreb. Boris Chait, her father and the Chairman of the Federation, is already checking the possibilities of finding another place in Europe for their training in the next days, but it is really late to do this.
Chait said: "We will not be here again. We do not want their ice and not from the Elite Sport" Boris this I don't understand why he wrote Elite Sport?. Even the terrorists did not succeed to do more damage than what they are doing to us at CC. They want to stop the sport, but I will not let them. The OC was here at the Israeli Nationals this weekend, and they were in shock from the conditions here. The cold can cause physical damage to the bones and muscles. The sportsmen skate here with four-five sweaters and it doesn't help".
In a letter sent by the Fed to the owners of CC and to the Board of Directors, and which also went to the OC and Minhal Hasport, was written "This impossible situation, does not only harm the sportsmen, but also broadcasts a very strong message of response of the Sports Centre which is supported by hundreds and thousands of shekels a year as an Olympic centre. We were happy, that this year there was a massive public coming to watch, who had to sit in a "cooler box" which instead of making them pink from enjoyment, made them blue from the cold. The Judges sat shivering from the cold for long hours over two days of competition and could not feel their hands and legs. The sportsmen suffered from muscle spasms and colds, until their coaches were considering not allowing them to compete on the ice".
Shmuel Ben Shachar, GM of CC responds to Chait's words that the terrorists caused less damage: "It’s a cheek. I am talking from Miluim duty now, at 59, and Chait is sitting in New Jersey preaching morality to us. I have been to competitions overseas and it was more cold than this in the arena. To get to the point , the current cold weather was not expected and it is forbidden to make drastic changes in the heating. If this is done, it will either create fog on the ice, or the ice will melt. In the meantime we have made gradual changes in the temperature but this takes time. The hockey players practice in the arena and the skaters themselves practice freely here. It is really cold, but I hope that the arena will warm up a little".