Maccabi Junior Carnival underway
After settling into their adopted Sydney homes for the week, interstate participants joined their Sydney hosts at Hensley Field for the opening sporting event of this year’s Maccabi Junior Carnival…followed by the Opening Ceremony.
Opening ceremony officials
Events included runs of 100, 200 and 800 metres as well as field events long jump and high jump – each broken into two age categories per gender. There were some outstanding performances in our events, including a remarkable feat from NSW’s Jake Sperber who managed to jump a distance of 5.37 metres in the long jump. For those of you unfamiliar with long jump, that’s a pretty big jump!
At the completion of the sporting aspect of Carnival’s opening day, came the formal element where we officially ushered in the start of the 11th Junior Carnival held on the shores of Sydney. MC Joel Grunstein ran the show as speeches from Carnival Manager, Justin Shelton, Maccabi NSW President, Danny Hochberg, and Carnival patron, Tom Goldman were preceded by a welcome to country performed by Sydney Roosters players Connor Watson and Latrell Mitchell. The national anthems of Australia and Israel were performed by Doron Chester. Many spoke of the importance of Carnival as it was emphasised that over 17,500 Jewish young people have now participated in Australia’s largest Jewish youth event since its inception in 1982. Finally, the Jocelyn Kann Memorial Flame was lit as Maccabi Junior Carnival was officially opened much to the delight of the crowd.
After a long day, participants were then picked up from the venue as they ventured home to prepare for the hectic schedule they are to endure over the next week.
