Kosovo Karateists: Politics not get involved in sports

Herolind Nishevci, an interactive KTV champion, has said that with this decision by the Serbian government not to allow Kosovars to take part in the competition, athletes mostly lose.

The politics must once and for all stay out of the sport. We go racing and it's important who wins or loses, that's sport. We're fighting for the Olympic rate. It was a qualifying race. Now we have no point, nothing. Everyone we've defeated now is behind them on the list. Most of the contestants have suffered”, Nishevci said.

According to Nishevci, Serbia has been afraid that someone from the Kosovo team will come out with medals from this championship. He has said he will now make it difficult to qualify for Olympics because of nonparticipation.

On the other hand, Federation of Karate of Kosovo Chairman Ismet Krasniqi has explained conversations he has behind him with international officials regarding this forbidden trip.

According to him, Kosovars had also accepted the request to remove Kosovo symbols from the fans along the way only to participate in the Europeans. Krasniqi, however, has said Kosovo's request has been that all contestants be equal within the race.

We agreed to remove them because it costs us to get rid of them because of the security issue. I don't need any championships if I get hurt by any sportsmen. We agreed to take them out because we would even get off the bus and not risk it. The road was the smallest problem. Another plan was in the race. There we competed for Kosovo”, Krasniqi has indicated. “We've requested that if they want us to remove the state flag, let all European states be removed. We're accepted with equal rights with the others”.

Besides Chairman Krasniqi, neither would the contestants agree to race without Kosovo symbols.

Sometimes it doesn't mean everything. Most important is representation of your country. I think it would be better if we didn't participate without symbols because we're a country. We're fighting for this country, and we're trying to show the world that we're a new country, but we have talents and samples”, Nishevci said.

Krasniqi has said that Serbia now awaits the sentences because it does not know how to organise the race.