Yesterday night President Lennart Meri congratulated Erki Nool who had just won the Decathlon Championship of Europe.

The President said that after a 60-year pause an Estonian sportsman has won the European championship, and this victory will always be in the minds and hearts of all Estonians. ''This was one of the days when the whole nation followed his efforts throughout the day with the same feeling, a feeling that is well known to every sportsman,'' the Head of State said.

As the President said it was overpowering to see on TV the Estonian flags proudly streaming on the Nepstadion of Budapest, and to see Erki Nool, the Champion of Europe, proudly holding the Estonian flag.

The President hoped that Erki Nool has set an example for today's schoolchildren. As the President said, in Estonia sports have never meant the miserable comedy of one man competing and a million watching it on TV with beer-bottles in their hands.

The President wished that the brave sportsman would be a paragon to our children, just as it used to be when he was young, and that every class at every school would have its own Erki Nool.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, August 21, 1998

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