For Israeli Olympic athlete Tohar Butbul, a judoka in the men’s73-kg. division, Monday’s first scheduled bout must have felt like déjà vu all over again. That’s because his scheduled competition, Sudanese judoka Mohamed Abdalrasool did not show up for the bout. He is the second athlete to cut out of an event with the Israeli judoka. Algerian judoka Fethi Nourine pulled out of competition on Friday rather than face Butbul, and said in interviews with the Algerian media that he would not fight an Israeli competitor due to his support for the Palestinian cause. The International Judo Federation has not yet announced the reason why Abdalrasool did not show up and Sudanese Olympic officials also are not talking. Sudan signed a normalization agreement with Israel in January, which was widely panned in the African country.
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