The Jewish Chronicle
Israel just keep battling on
Medals are in short supply but their squad in Rio are staying resolute to the end
August 18, 2016 10:45
By, Simon Griver
2 min read
Medals are in short supply but their squad in Rio are staying resolute to the end
August 18, 2016 10:45BySimon Griver, Simon Griver
Israel's squad are determined to fight on to the final day of action after a medal haul of just two bronzes so far, both for judo, as the sporting spectacular nears its climax.
Olympic Association of Israel head Gili Lustig said on Wednesday evening: "We are not resting on these laurels. We want more medals and more finals. The fact that we have only won two medals has not lowered the motivation of those who still have to compete in the remaining competitions."
Israel's second medal in Rio came when Or Sasson took the bronze in the men's judo 100kg category. It followed Yarden Gerbi's bronze in the women's judo under 63kg event.
Sasson lost in the semi-final to world champion Teddy Riner, but in the consolation competition for bronze overcame Cuba's Alex Garcia Mendoza.
In the first round, Sasson had famously beaten Egypt's Islam Al-Shahabi, who though he resisted pressure to boycott the bout, snubbed a handshake with Sasson after his defeat.
Sasson said: "I prefer to talk about my achievement not the Egyptian incident. This has been my dream since I was nine years old and began with judo and I've always wanted an Olympic medal so badly. I was inspired by my older brother Alon who was European Under 20 judo champion. But I never really believed I had what it takes until former Olympic medalist Oren Smadja became my coach a few years ago. I'm so proud for my family and for all of Israel."
Both Hanna Knyazyeva-Minenko in the triple jump and Maayan Davidovich in women's windsurfing came close to bringing Israel what would have been a record third medal in a single Olympics.
But Minenko's impressive leap of 14.68 metres, her best effort this year, was only enough for fifth place. She said: "I still feel this is an achievement considering I underwent surgery just a few months ago on my foot and didn't think I would be fit for Rio."
Davidovich went into the final race of the windsurfing in fifth place and was in the medal position in the early stages before a wrong turn ended her chances.
Elsewhere, in the sailing Dan Froyliche and Eyal Levin finished 21st in the men's 470 dinghies and Gil Cohen and Nina Amir were 18th in the women's 470.
In weightlifting Igor Olshanetskyi was 17th in the men's 105kg category. while Ron Atias crashed out 16-2 to Brazilian Veniton Texixeira in the Taekwondo event.
Donald Sanford's 46.06 was not enough to see him into the 400m semi-finals, while Maor Tiyouri ended the women's marathon in 90th place out of 133 finishers and Korlima Chemtai retired towards the end. Tiyouri clocked a time of 2:47.27 hours.
Misha Zilberman became the first Israeli to win an Olympic badminton match. He beat Yuhan Tan of Belgium 2-0 before being pipped by Chen Tien Chou of Chinese Taipei to first place in the group.
Anastasia Gloushkov and Evgenia Tetelbaume failed to qualify for the final of the duets event in the synchronised swimming.
Ilana Kratysh's wrestling bid got off to a losing start on Wednesday when she was beaten 6-2 by Brazilian Gilda Maria Oliveira. But Kratysh still had hopes for the repecharge competition.