(September 20) - The Israeli delegation is feeling "down in the dumps" after posting poor results yet again at the Sydney Olympics, swimmer Tal Stricker said yesterday.
Stricker and the other swimmers who competed in the fourth day of the Games, failed to make it past the preliminary rounds. Shooter Alex Danilov and sailboarder Michal Hein also had less than satisfying results in their events.
The only silver lining for the Israeli team yesterday came in the form of sailboarder Amit Inbar who climbed from sixth to fourth place in the men's mistral competition.
Danilov began the day for the national team in the 50m. free pistol event. He was off his mark and shot a score of 556 out of 600 available points. Bulgaria's Tanyu Kiriakov, the top qualifier in the preliminary round, had 570 points. Kiriakov then shot 96 out of 100 in the finals round, to take the gold.
Throughout the competition, the 30-year-old Danilov looked like he was on his way to the finals. But he faltered on his last few rounds, and ended in 18th place in the preliminaries.
Swimmer Yoav Bruck, 28, who finished eighth in the European championships last year and is in his third Olympics, clocked a disappointing 51.62 seconds in the 100m. freestyle preliminaries. He finished 38th out of 74 competitors. Croatia's Duje Draganja, whose time was 49.83 seconds, secured the 16th and final spot for the semifinals.
Holland's Pieter van den Hoogenband later topped the men's freestyle semifinals with a time of 47.84. Australia's Michael Klim is in second with 48.80.
Vered Borochovsky, who was scheduled to compete in the 200m. butterfly preliminaries yesterday, was a no-show.
Neither her coach Vladimir Soifer nor the IOC would go into detail about the 16-year-old's pullout. Borochovsky placed 19th out of 46 in the women's 100m. butterfly heats on Saturday. On Monday, she came in 21st out of 36 in the 200m. individual medley heats with a time of 2:18.99 minutes. She did not advance to the semifinals.
In an interview yesterday with Ma'ariv's Olympics correspondent in Sydney, Soifer said: "From my point of view, we're mainly talking about psychological pressure. The competition is very intense here, and the pressures of succeeding are huge...."
Soifer also said the nation's young swimmer "isn't mentally mature enough for this level of competition."
Meantime, in the men's 200m. breastroke, Tal Stricker finished 32nd out of 47 with a time of 2:19.33 minutes. The heats competition was won by Italy's Davide Rummolo in 2:12.75.
"I prepared more for the 100m. swim than for the 200m. event," Stricker told Achla Web site. "I'm a little let down with my result, but am very optimistic about the 4x100m. medley race that will take place on Friday. I feel terrible, down in the dumps. I was physically exhausted [before yesterday's race], I didn't succeed in getting into the semifinals... it's a shame."
His teammates shared his frustration. "I'm disappointed... maybe I'm not good enough," said Yoav Bruck. "My body is not in perfect shape, and that's too bad. I'm hoping I can still swim in the medley [on Friday]."
"It was a surprise that Bruck did so poorly," swimming coach Leonid Shachit told Achla. "He is the most senior swimmer and is in good health. We'll have to check what went wrong."
Sailboarder Amit Inbar provided Israel's only glimmer of hope yesterday, when he moved into fourth place in the men's mistral class sailboarding competition. Inbar has 44 points after four races.
Yuanguo Zhou of the People's Republic of China had originally won yesterday's fourth race, but after a protest hearing last night he was stripped of his win due to contact with his coach during the race.
After two weeks of pre-event training in strong winds, the sailing competition is now having trouble due to a lack of steady wind.
Six races should have been completed by now, but yesterday's winds only built up enough to squeeze in a single race for both the men and women.
Michal Hein, meanwhile, dropped from 13th to 14th place yesterday. After her first two races she was in ninth.
Today's competitions will feature swimmers Yoav Gat and Micky Halika, and sailors Shani Kedmi, Anat Fabrikant, Eli Zukerman, and Elad Ronen. Hein and Inbar's competitions also continue.
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