Hatoel Zuckerman foiled by referee

by HILLEL KUTTLER

ATLANTA (July 23) - A fuming Lydia Hatoel Zuckerman yesterday accused the referee of taking away her chance to advance to the quarter-finals in the individual foil fencing competition.

In a bout decided in the last 12 seconds, Zuckerman fell in the round-of-16 to fifth-seeded, Monika Weber-Koszto of Germany, 15-13.

"Of course I was optimistic I'd win," Zuckerman said of the deciding moments. "I fought hard to win and I did win. He (the referee) took it from me. She (Weber-Koszto) should be sitting and crying now to the journalists. ... It's really heart-breaking."

The two other Israeli fencers won their opening bouts before being knocked out of the Games in the second round.

Lilach Parisky said she lost her concentration and fell to Romania's Laura Badea 15-5. She had earlier defeated Argentina's Yanina Iannuzzi 15-7.

Ayelet Ohayon, a day after her 24th birthday, demolished Carmen Rodriguez of Guatemala 15-2 before losing to eighth-ranked Sabine Bau of Germany 15-10.

Twelfth-seeded Zuckerman gained a bye into the second round and then pulled out a close match against the US's Felicia Zimmerman, 15-12.

Against Weber-Koszto, Zuckerman rallied from an 11-7 deficit in the third and final round to pull to 11-10 and tied it at 12-all with under a minute remaining. Weber-Koszto then went ahead 14-12, needing just one more point for victory. But Zuckerman closed to 14-13 with 12 seconds left and seemed to tie it with a touch and possibly force a sudden-death overtime with seven seconds to go. But Spanish referee Jesus Esperansa, said Weber-Koszto had been on the offensive and denied Zuckerman's plea.

"I attacked her and he ruled against me. It's not right," she said. "She was only responding to my attack. It should have been a tie, and in overtime, who knows?"

The German then sealed the event with a touch five seconds from the end. The Israeli team claimed that it was not a clean touch.

The women will next appear in Thursday's team competition.

Meanwhile Yoav Bruck and Boris Polak both failed to advance in their respective events.

Bruck failed to advance in the 100-meter freestyle, finishing fifth in his heat at 50.61 seconds, 0.47 seconds behind winner, Stephen Clarke of Canada.

Polak, the 1994 world champion, finished a disappointing 33rd with a score of 581, far behind the leader Wolfram Waibel of Austria who scored 596.

Windsurfer Gal Friedman was scheduled to compete in his first two races yesterday but the event was still on hold by presstime due to a lack of wind. He is scheduled to race today as well.

In today's action, 1994 Olympic judo medalists Yael Arad and Oren Smadja open their challenge, while Eytan Orbach will compete in the 100 meters backstroke.

Also on the Israeli itinerary, marksman Alex Tripolski will take aim in the free pistol category and boxer Vacislav Neiman is scheduled to fight in the 51-kg. category.