Mushir Salem Jawher (Leonard Mucheru), the first athlete from an Arab country, who ran and won a marathon in Israel without permission has been stripped of his citizenship by the adopted country Bahrain which has no official ties with the Jewish state.Bahrain's sport authorities said Mushir Salem Jawher, who was born in Kenya but moved to Bahrain in 2003, had violated the laws of the country. He won the Tiberias Marathon in just over two hours and 13 minute.
"This is outside the rules and he went to Israel without telling anyone," Mohammed Abdul Jalal, the head of the Bahrain Athletics Association, told Reuters news agency.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the Bahrain Athletic Association said it had received news that a Bahraini national had competed in Israel with "shock and regret".
A committee of sport and government authorities decided to strike Mr Jawher's name off the sport union records and revoke his Bahraini nationality, the statement said.
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