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Israeli Jiu-Jitsu champion and Nova festival survivor dedicates gold medal to murdered friend

Shikri was also awarded a gold medal in November which he dedicated to his friends who were killed by Hamas at the Nova Music Festival.

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Yarin Shriki, an Israeli Jiu Jitsu champion and Nova music festival survivor dedicated his gold medal to his friend who was murdered by Hamas on October 7th.

After winning the Paris Jiu Jitsu 2024 Grand Prix on Saturday, Shriki said his gold medal was dedicated to the memory of his deceased best friend Yohai Ben Zechariah.

Shikri won the male under-69kg Gi category, defeating two contestants from France and one from Ukraine.

The final match was suspenseful, with the Ukrainian fighter Kostiantyn Shutko appearing almost victorious until the final 30 seconds when Shikri took the lead by two points.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Shikri said, “I am very proud to represent our country, especially in places where the majority isn’t supporting us, and there is a lot of hate towards our people.”

He added, “It gives me great satisfaction to make those people stand for the Israel national anthem.”

In an Instagram post, Shikri wrote, “Grand Prix Paris gold medal. Thank God for everything.”

Shikri was also awarded a gold medal in November which he dedicated to his friends who were killed by Hamas at the Nova Music Festival.

In a post from November, Shirki wrote, “Where do I start my story… A story that never ends. On 7/10 I was in Nova with my brothers and close friends. I’ve never described what happened to us.”

He added, “How does a party of fun and beautiful people turn into an area full of corpses and blood? Not a few hours passed and I started to hear that people so close to me were no longer answering.”

Shikri explained, “We ran away as fast as possible in every direction and miraculously I made it home. But my friends didn’t.”

“I didn’t have time to cry as I already found myself returning to training with all my might for the European Team Championship in Croatia,” he added.

“And before I got on the plane, the only thing I knew was that I was going to play the national anthem for all those beautiful people who were murdered in cold blood,” Shikri stated.

He concluded, “This gold medal is dedicated to my dear Yochai ben Zakaria and the late Osher Simcha Barzilai, z”l, thank you for everything.